The Day
by She-bop
Summary: Gaara x Lee; short intro chapter with smut to follow. Gaara is tired of Lee and decides to do something about it but due to Lee's good nature, it backfires...or does it? Dark-ish themes, light non-con, mostly awkward sexual tension
1. Introduction

Lee and Gaara had been training for quite some time before the stranger of the two young man started to really notice certain details about the other that had never stood out to him before. When they first met, he considered the green-clad clone of his sensei to be a nothing, not even something worth taking the time to kill. It would have been like going out of his way to step on an ant and that really wasn't his style. Of course, that was how he felt about the vast majority of the other ninja in the leaf that he met during the tournament exam.

Then, they actually got to fight. Naturally, Gaara thought the match would be all too easy, which was why he decided to let Lee mess around for as long as he did at the beginning of their match. Although he was surprised that Lee had actually broken through his defenses, what got to him even more was how the stupid, talentless young man could continue to stand before him. There a sickeningly giddy moment toward the end of the match when Gaara realized that he would have to kill Lee in order to defeat him. He would have done it too if that man hadn't stepped between them.

Even so, it was Lee's never say die attitude that first hooked Gaara. The rest was just a matter of spending time together, not that anyone had the faintest notion that something more intimate than friendship could develop between them. Because they had spent so much time together already, Gaara had gotten pretty good at antagonizing his sparing partner. He liked seeing the fire of anger flair up behind those dark, round eyes, and the way his incredible eyebrows would furrow. Of course, on the other side of that was his gleaming smile when his attacks would succeed or he managed to take the sand ninja off guard. These things excited Gaara for reasons he could not explain. He wasn't sure he wanted it explained. It seemed more exciting when left ambiguous. Regardless, the feelings were there and they were growing with each passing day. Some days, just the thought of their afternoon sparring session made his heart race. He wanted to see the other young man, sweating, and breathless, and have it be because of him.

From his first day in the leaf, Gaara told himself that he wanted nothing more out of the experience than to make Lee scream for mercy. He knew he wouldn't get away with killing him, or maiming him too terribly, which as far as he was concerned, severely limited his options. Then, one morning, he decided that today would be the day, the day he made Lee scream uncle and admit that he was the weaker between them once and for all. He didn't care what it would take, only that it would be as exquisite an experience as it would be rewarding. He would not be deterred. Today was the day.

* * *

okay, so I'm not sure if I should just leave this as it is or if I should continue. please help!


	2. A Change of Heart

As Lee walked to his team's usual training area, he swore that he caught sight of Gaara out of the corner of his eye. He was willing to dismiss it at first but when it happened more than once, he stopped and looked around. As far as he knew, Gaara had no reason to follow him but that didn't eliminate the possibility that he had seen him. The sand ninja had never hesitated to approach him before, or simply walk away for that matter, so it stood to reason that it was a coincidence. Still, he let his curiosity get the better of him and he called out, "Gaara-san?", as he looked around to see if he had been imagining things. He did this a second time and after receiving no response, and feeling more than a little foolish, he continued on his way.

However, the feeling that his new training partner was lurking about nagged at him. Most of the nagging was easy to dismiss as paranoia left over from when Gaara had tried to kill him. After having saved his life during the fiasco of a mission to rescue the runaway Sasuke, he thought that feeling was gone. So, then, why did he feel like he might turn around any moment and see those dark, dangerous eyes peering up at him? Since Gaara wasn't obliged to train with the rest of Guy's team, Lee was left to ponder this for most of the morning, which only seemed to aggravate his suspiciousness. There were even a few moments when it seemed like the dust at his feet swirled up around his ankles, reminding him of how easily Gaara had bound him with sand during their first altercation, but still he thought it was crazy, and tried to let it go.

Probably because he had been anticipating seeing Gaara for the better part of the morning, Lee felt a certain sense of relief when they met up later that day. As usual, he greeted the distant young man with a warm smile and a hearty wave, though this time it did feel a bit forced. "Good afternoon, Gaara-san," he nearly shouted.

Gaara flinched at the unnecessary volume. "What's so good about it?" he snapped. Though he felt no particular aversion to that day, as he had occasionally he felt on other days, he just didn't feel like giving the other young man the satisfaction of being right, even in something so trivial.

"Oh, come on. The sun is shining, the breeze is warm, and there's not even a single cloud in the sky," he pointed out.

The sand ninja rolled his eyes. As far as he was concerned the weather had very little bearing on the kind of day it was. "Whatever," he muttered.

Lee studied his training partner for a moment. Gaara wasn't exactly the most personable individual but he was usually a little better than that. "What's the matter?" he suddenly pressed, taking a few empathetic steps toward the shorter young man.

Gaara's dark eyes slowly crawled up Lee's body as he approached. He waited until there was a sympathetic hand on his shoulder to look him in the eye. Then, he gave a heavy but quiet sigh, reveling in the warmth that emerged too readily from his taller companion. Once he was satisfied by the little tremble in his stomach at being the subject of such warmth, he gave a bitter little frown. "I'm sick of this. It's not getting us anywhere," he complained, shrugging the hand off his shoulder and taking a few steps away to see if the other would follow.

He didn't follow immediately, but the dark-haired teen did lean toward him as he retreated. "What do you mean?" He was obviously hurt by that assertion.

"I mean, I'm tired of wasting time. This training isn't accomplishing anything." He turned and narrowed a careful gaze on the taller young man.

"So…what are you gunna do?" Lee asked weakly, feeling utterly useless.

That question made a strangely unnerving smile start to form on Gaara's thin lips. "I'm gunna do what I've wanted to do since our first fight."

"Wh-What's that?" Lee recoiled a bit.

"I'm gunna make you beg for mercy," he vowed.

Lee's eyes grew wide in horror and he stumbled backward. "What?" he repeated stupidly.

"You heard me," he snapped, taking an aggressive step forward. "Unless you just wanna say it now and then we can go our separate ways," he offered, knowing that it would not be accepted.

"I will not beg you for anything!" Lee asserted angrily.

Gaara gave a loud, condescending laugh. "I was hoping you'd say that. It wouldn't be enjoyable if you just admitted it right off the bat."

Rage flared behind Lee's dark, round eyes. "We'll see about that," he replied surely before taking his first swing. As he expected, it was dodged easily.

"What's gotten into you?" Lee demanded as he tried to find an opening for retaliation.

"I'm tired of holding back for you. Maybe if I prove how far removed my power is from yours, they won't make me babysit you anymore," he snorted.

"You're not babysitting me!" Lee snapped harshly. "Did you ever consider that I'm working with you to keep your attitude in check?"

Gaara had been expecting that sort of response because he knew that was the primary reason for pairing them off like that. He didn't bother responding. He was having too much fun tormenting the green-clad young man to bother with idle conversation. They gave each other some fairly nice bruises before Gaara decided to start using his sand control to trap and toy with the other young man. He particularly enjoyed letting him run a significant distance before grabbing him by the ankle and dragging him back to him.

"This is almost as pointless as our training," Gaara laughed down at the dark-haired teen bound to the ground with sand.

Lee wasn't listening to the taunts. He was furious and determined to break free, which he did a moment later, not that Gaara really wanted to keep hold of him. It was just as much fun chasing him as it was catching him. However, it didn't take long before Lee realized that he was being toyed with and shortly after, he slipped away, again easier than he should have, he decided to say something.

"This is _even more_ pointless than what we were doing before!" Lee shouted from a few meters away as he regained his footing.

"I wouldn't go that far," Gaara nearly purred. Actually, he enjoyed this much more than their previous afternoons together.

"You're just messing with me!" he accused, oblivious to the dangerous undercurrent in the other's voice.

"Oh? You want me to get serious? I thought you might want some time to get warmed up," he taunted.

Lee gave an angry growl and blindly attacked his training partner once again. Gaara laughed as he easily dodged the taller teen, even tripping him back to the ground.

"You're pathetic. You don't deserve my time," he nearly spat on the green-clad teen.

"You're lucky you had anybody to train with at all! When they told us you would need a training partner while you were here, do you know how many volunteers there were? Zero…well one, after I decided to try it," Lee growled disdainfully. "If one of us is wasting their time, it's me!"

Gaara was surprised to find that what the other was saying actually hurt a little and that made him very angry. How dare this weakling make him feel any sort of self-doubt? He lashed out with a flying kick but to his dismay, the blow was largely deflected because of the distraction of the feeling. "Like I want to spend time with any of you. I hate this place and everyone in it. I'm only here as punishment. It only adds insult to injury to have someone I've already defeated assigned to babysit me."

"If you don't want to do this, fine!" Lee nearly screamed. "If you're frustrated, don't take it out on me. I only ever tried to-" he stopped himself and started to walk away.

Inevitably, that intrigued Gaara and he had to stop him. However, when he tried to catch up with and step in front of him, the other young man redoubled his pace. So, in response, he held his feet with sand. Then, when he was able to walk around to face him. "You only ever what?" he asked, drawing ever closer but stopping before they actually touched.

Lee frowned and blushed ever so lightly, not enough to be noticed over the flush of his anger. "I never expected you to notice but I was trying to make this as easy for you as possible," he admitted.

Gaara was truly stunned. Of course, he hadn't realized because the very idea that someone would go out of their way to make things easier for him, rather than more difficult, shocked him. He leaned forward just a little more and narrowed his eyes. "Why would you do something stupid like that?"

"I know you hate it here, I know you hate me, and I know none of that is going to change…I just hoped that it would make you a less mean, I guess…" Lee rambled.

Gaara purse his lips and his arms started to tremble slightly. Lee thought this was because he was about to be struck but really it was because Gaara was fighting the urge to embrace him. The taller teen watched with cautious eyes as Gaara reeled at the notion that someone he wanted to kill really gave a damn about him.

"S-So…what are you going to do?" Lee barely asked when the tension between them became too awkward to bare.

Gaara pulled back and took a good, long look at his training partner. "I haven't decided yet," he petulantly replied, turning his back.

Lee frowned and struggled a little, "At least let me go," he pleaded.

The shorter teen shot a careful look over his shoulder. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Lee raved.

"Well, you're the one who pointed out that chasing you around was pretty pointless," Gaara dawdled.

"What's the point of keeping me like this?" Lee demanded, not realizing that question came with an open can of worms.

Gaara got a strange little gleam in his eye as he turned back to his training partner. "Were you really trying to make things easier for me?" he questioned curiously.

"Yeah, I don't have a reason to lie," Lee snapped back.

The shorter teen started to smile. "Why would you do that? Did you really think it would make me nicer?" he sneered.

"I-I dunno. There was a better chance of it if I was nice to you than if I was a jerk," he reasoned, feeling more than a little foolish even though he knew he had only followed his good nature.

"But I was a jerk to you," Gaara pointed out.

"I know…" Lee looked away, wishing desperately that he could free his feet.

"Then why bother?" the shorter teen cocked his head to one side.

"'Cause I'm not a jerk," Lee nearly growled and renewed his struggle.

Gaara laughed and let his sand crawl up to the taller teen's knees.

"What are you doing?" he demanded and flailed but only ended up losing his balance. To his surprise, Gaara caught his forearm before he could bend too far backward. "Th-Thanks…" he warily added and Gaara smiled at him.

Then, there was a strange moment of overextended contact when Gaara should have let go of Lee's arm but let his grasp linger for a few extra seconds. He could feel the taller teen's strong arm through the thin fabric of his audacious uniform and he felt the subtle desire for skin to skin contact. However, he did withdraw a moment later, a slight, nearly undetectable blush decorating his fair cheeks.

He wanted to answer the dark-haired teen's demanding question but he was torn. He still wanted to make Lee beg for him but he no longer wanted to hurt him, which was a very curious sensation to say the least.

"Gaara?" Lee repeated a couple times before pulling the shorter teen from his thoughts. "What's going on?" he almost pleaded. For some reason, he could sense that he wasn't in immediate danger anymore but that didn't seem to ease his anxiety.

"What?" the sand ninja snapped, stepping back again.

"Please, let me go. I'll even buy your dinner so you don't have to eat at the dorms," he bargained. Gaara had complained at length on several occasions about how much he hated eating in the cafeteria at the dorm, both because of the crowd and because he didn't actually stay in the dorms. Since he didn't sleep, he didn't need to stay there but he didn't have any money either and he could only steal so much food before someone noticed.

However, that bargain earned Lee another odd little smile. Gaara shook his head, almost in exasperation. "I'm not done with you yet," he informed in the same petulant tone as before.

Lee felt his heart skip a beat. "What are you going to do?"

The corners of Gaara's mouth twitched. "I told you what I was going to when we started," he chided.

The dark-haired teen swallowed hard but lost his words when Gaara drew close to him again. There was a dangerous and maniacal gleam in the shorter teen's eyes, giving them a sharp attentiveness that the dark circles around them usually dulled. Then, with a carefully critical look, he brought his hand up to brush the back of his fingers against the taller teen's cheek.

Lee flinched violently. "Ugh, what are you doing?"

Gaara's smile grew. "If you get too banged up, I'll get in trouble," he informed casually before letting his fingers fall down further across the darker young man's neck.

"Aack! Stop it!" Lee slapped the gently intrusive hand away.

The shorter teen giggled almost idiotically and reached for the zipper at the dip in the base of Lee's throat.

"What's the matter with you?" he brought his hands up and pulled Gaara's hands away from him.

He didn't respond except to move to his collar to play with that instead.

Lee looked around in a panic only then realizing that Gaara had managed to lead him a fair way into the forest and away from the village. "I-I don't understand…"

Gaara liked it when Lee was confused and laughed a little as he reached out again. This time, he took his chin between his thumb and index finger, lifting his head.

"Stop it!" Lee yelled, once again pushing the intrusive hand away, this time squirming fitfully.

"What if I promised not to hurt you?" he offered offhandedly as he examined the taller teen's neckline.

Lee's heart nearly stopped. "Th-Then what…?" he trailed off, incapable of finishing the thought.

Gaara looked up with a dangerously affectionate gleam in his eyes that dared him to finish his question. When Lee was obviously too frozen in fearful shock, he shrugged and leaned up to give the taller teen a light little kiss on the side of his neck. He might have gone ahead and kissed him on the lips but he didn't want to raise up onto his tiptoes to do it.

That made Lee absolutely freak out. He started flailing and pushing the invasive body away from his own. "Gaara! Are you okay? What's the matter with you?" He once again renewed and redoubled his efforts to escape.

"Well," he caught Lee by the arms both to stop him from flailing and from falling over. "You see, when we met up today, I decided that I wanted to beat you to a lifeless, bloody pulp until you screamed for mercy and admitted that you are inferior to me," he informed, almost eerily casual.

"I would never-!" Lee began but then realized that antagonizing his comrade and opponent wasn't the smartest move.

"But then you made me realize how nice you've been to me…it really put a damper on things," he pretended to be annoyed.

"I…Gaara, please let me go," Lee pleaded. He didn't care about the motivations anymore. He was scared and trapped, a potentially lethal combination.

"It made me not want to hurt you," he continued seriously, which stopped Lee's babbling. "But I still want to hear you scream," he added with a dark little smile.

Neither of them thought that Lee's eyes could grow any wider but they did. "Look, I know your frustrated but please, don't take it out on me," he pleaded.

Gaara gave a low chuckle and let his hands start to wander from the other young man's arms to his chest. When they had first met, he found the green uniform to be outrageously obnoxious, just like the rest of the teen, but like many other things, that opinion changed. As he started to touch Lee through his shirt, he began to enjoy the fact that it was so thin and so tight. It was almost like touching his skin, but not quite. He could still feel his collar bones, his ribs, and the taut muscles of his chest and stomach. Then, when one of his hands finally brushed over one of Lee's little nipples, he was rewarded by actually being able to see it try to poke through the fabric in addition to feeling it harden from the awkward and minimal attention.

Lee didn't even realize his body's natural reaction to the uncomfortably intimate touches until he looked down to see Gaara awing at his chest and reaching up with his other hand to do it to his other nipple. "Aaah, no, please, whatever you're doing, please don't," he started to plea again.

"What's that you're always going on about? Energetic youth?" Gaara distractedly questioned.

"It's the springtime of youth," Lee bitterly corrected, "And stop touching me like that!" he fitfully demanded when he realized that Gaara was about to start teasing both of his nipples through his shirt.

"Yeah, that's it. Do you even know what that means?" he pressed, undeterred by the taller teen's protests and started by continuing to lightly brush his fingertips over the little nubs that stuck out at him so readily.

"I-It's the time in a person's life when they should live to the fullest, before they get older and other stuff gets in the way," he tried to explain, though his situation was making it difficult to think. "Don't touch me like that!" he finally demanded forcefully because the minimal sensations being afforded him were stirring something inside him that he wasn't very comfortable with.

Gaara laughed and used his sand to take Lee's hands and secure them behind his back. "I'll stop touching you when you make me," he taunted, almost hoping that the other would break free so he would have a chance to chase him down again. "You know what springtime also means, right?" he asked in a slow, dark voice as he returned his attention to his comrade's chest.

"I don't know why you're doing this! Please, there has to be another way for you to deal with whatever's wrong," Lee struggled as he continued to plead.

"What makes you think there's something wrong?" the shorter teen teased as he started to flick the hard nipples that poked out at him.

"Aagh," Lee jerked ineffectually. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I've hardly done anything but touch you a little," Gaara pointed out with an eerily practiced innocence that he hadn't used since he was a child. He didn't have to use it often back then either, but it was a nice trick to have on occasion. "Though…" he trailed off as his eyes moved downward, stopping to blatantly gawk at the taller teen's crotch. "You know, this uniform of yours is very flattering on you," he complimented.

Lee blinked in astonishment. "What?" was all he could manage. As far as he could tell, Gaara had completely flipped his lid and he thought if that ever happened while he was around, he would hope against violence, now he wasn't so sure.

"Even if it is _very_ revealing," he added with an almost parental disapproval.

"Revealing?" Lee gasped. He had never considered his choice of uniform to be revealing.

"Of course. I can see every…little…curve of your body, just as if you were naked," Gaara bragged, letting his hands trace over some of the taller teen's more well defined curves for emphasis.

The dark-haired young man found himself trembling lightly at the tone and touches of the other. "I-I never…never realized it looked that way," he admitted shamefully.

"Oh, don't be bashful now. Don't tell me you weren't showing off just a little," he teased. His hands had yet to venture below the taller teen's waistline, though they did threaten to on occasion. He might have made that next step sooner if toying with Lee's pert little nipples hadn't proven to be so very amusing. His grin grew and his eyes danced with every useless jerk and twitch, either involuntary or retaliatory.

"No, I would never even think to-! Gaara, stop it!" he ordered because he could feel himself becoming unwillingly aroused by the rude groping he was receiving.

Gaara snickered. "I'm surprised no one's said anything to you about it before."

"You're the only one who's ever said anything like that. Maybe it's just you," he weakly accused.

The shorter teen pulled back a bit, a strange little grin tugging at the corners of his parted lips. "Look at yourself and tell me what you would think," he urged, pulling even further away and loosening the hold of his sand to allow the other to see more easily.

Lee hesitated but since Gaara was pulling away, he decided to comply. He didn't like what he saw. He gave a little whine of anguish when he saw how his nipples brazenly poked out the fabric of his shirt. Then, he felt like he was going to cry when he gaze moved lower and saw his partial erection perfectly outlined by the stretchy fabric. He blushed deeply and looked away in shame. "Please, I'm begging you. Let me go! Let me go…" he pleaded desperately.

Gaara moved around to force eye contact. "Why are you so embarrassed that I turn you on?"

The taller teen screwed his eyes shut and shook his head violently back and forth. He was so angry and embarrassed that he focused all his attention on gritting his teeth and trying to force himself free.

"Is it because you don't really give a shit about me? You were just being nice because it was easier not because you give a damn. I get it…" he growled but started to let up on the taller teen.

Lee's panicked breath didn't ease as his captor relented. Now Gaara looked totally dejected and he didn't know how to react. "Do you _want_ me to turned on by you?" he asked meekly.

Gaara shot a dangerous look over his shoulder and turned away again. "All I want is your surrender. It was almost too easy," he commented, with a stoic detachment that completely contradicted the tone he had used moment before.

The taller teen opened his mouth to speak but the rest of the binding sand was gone along with his training partner, leaving him completely bewildered. It took him quite a while to collect himself well enough to even stand to walk out of the forest. He felt completely violated and he was angrier than he'd ever been but the look Gaara gave him made him feel guilty, which only made him angrier.

He had no right to touch him like that, especially after his repeated demands to stop. He found that he would have rather suffered another debilitating beating from the sand ninja that what had just happened to him. However, he couldn't help thinking that it wasn't entirely Gaara's fault. Lee knew from experience that the sleepless young man was unstable and had a really hard time dealing with people. When he considered that, he felt pity for the young man. But that didn't excuse his behavior. Even someone like Gaara should know that what he did was wrong.

As Lee started to walk back to the village, he replayed the moments leading up to this one, trying to see if there had been any way for him to avoid being molested like that. He concluded that there were a couple things he, in theory, could have done to avoid the incident, since he had no control over Gaara's behavior, only his own. He could wear a looser outfit, which at this point he was seriously considering. He could have not volunteered to train with Gaara or backed out when he realized that being nice, even over an extended period, wouldn't change his attitude. But that option now a had a gaping hole. Gaara said that he was coming onto him because he had been nice to him.

Lee shuddered. He very soon realized that there probably wasn't anything he could have done about what happened because by the time he realized what was happening, it was already too late, he had already been helplessly bound. He vowed to himself to never let his guard down like that again but feared that he might not be capable of stopping another assault.

Still, the question plagued him. Why would Gaara do anything like that in the first place? Could it be because he was really one of the only people in their village that had tried to be nice to him? He shook his head at that. Naruto had always been exceptionally kind and understanding toward his fellow demon host and, at least as far as he knew, Gaara had never made such a forward advance on him…or had he? Lee's heart skipped a beat and then he suddenly felt a little queasy because he realized that the idea that he was one of many victims, rather that a singular anomaly bothered him, though he wasn't precisely why. However, he was able to quickly put it out of his mind because there was a major difference between himself and Naruto. Naruto had defeated Gaara.

Then, he started cursing himself for actually becoming aroused, if only a little, by what had been done to him. He hadn't even realized that his normally obedient length had started to get hard until Gaara made him look to see. After that, it was the only thing he could think about. Gaara was right, he might as well have been naked with his cock sticking out the way it was. But there was something about his touches that stirred something inside him. In a way, it seemed like the way that Gaara touched him reflected something deep within him that even he probably didn't realize.

He was almost back to the village when that thought occurred to him and he stopped dead in his tracks. With a grumble of defeat, he turned around and went back into the forest. It wasn't that he wanted to find Gaara. For all he knew, the other young man had already made it back and was harassing someone else. No, he couldn't bring himself to face his friends and teammates so soon after what had happened. He had pretty much resolved to keep it to himself for the time being, wanting to think things over before trying to explain them to someone else, and knew he wouldn't be able to hide his distressing distraction from those closest to him.

He didn't go very far, just far enough to be sure that someone would have to go out of their way to find him. Since he had no further obligations that evening, it was unlikely that anyone would notice he was gone. Sitting down at the base of a large pine tree with a heavy sigh, Lee thought about what he should do. He didn't know it at the time, but Gaara was watching him from a short distance away, fascinated that the dark-haired teen had chosen to turn back rather that to immediately tell someone.

He was also fascinated that Lee didn't seem to be going anywhere. For a little while, he thought that perhaps he was waiting for him to return but something about his posture, the fact that he seemed more dawdling than impatient, told him otherwise. He gave a sad little smile of satisfaction at the idea that he could have made Lee think he couldn't seek comfort with his friends. It made him feel a certain amount of camaraderie to show someone else what it was like to have no one to turn to. But he knew it wouldn't last. Lee wouldn't sit under that tree forever. He would eventually find his bearings and return to the company of his friends.

So, before that could happen, Gaara moved in once again. This time, he was much less intrusive in his advance. He simply dropped down to the forest floor a few feet in front of Lee and sat cross-legged.

"Why are you just sitting here?" he asked with genuine, almost childish, curiosity.

Lee frown and gave a little sigh. "I'm not ready to go back yet," he replied curtly.

Gaara wondered if Lee was hungry but didn't bother to ask. "Are you going to report me?" he asked brashly, almost daring him to do it.

The taller teen rolled his eyes and turned away without a word. He considered getting up and walking away but he was afraid that Gaara might feel the need to forcibly stop him. He decided that even though he didn't like it, at this point, passive resistance was his best option.

"Lee," Gaara continued in a serious voice, "Do you like me or hate me?"

He almost burst into tears but somehow ended up laughing hard enough to make his eyes water. That was just the very question he was trying to decide. If he liked Gaara, then he wouldn't report him; he would try to work things out between them. If he hated him, then everyone would know what he'd done and he'd get thrown out of the village. Maybe that's what Gaara wanted all along. The idea of being used bothered Lee but considering the circumstances, it didn't feel as bad as he thought it would.

"Which would you rather?" Lee finally asked, still not looking at the young man sitting a few meters from him.

It was Gaara's turn to frown. He didn't know. He was asking because he wanted Lee to define the parameters of their relationship, just as everyone else in his life had done. "I would _rather_ you answer my question."

"I would _rather_ have not been groped!" Lee snapped harshly.

The sudden aggressiveness made a little of Gaara's smile return.

"Tell me," he began again before the other had a chance to speak, "Tell me why you did that," he demanded.

Gaara obviously didn't want to answer but he could tell he would have to if he was going to get the answer that he wanted. "I started doing that because I still wanted to hurt you but without leaving any marks, since you had been nice" he admitted. "And I think part of me wanted you to be mad enough to get me kicked out of here."

Lee gave a solemn nod and was about to say, "Then I hate you," but Gaara started speaking again.

"But then…" he began and then stopped himself, obviously incredibly self-conscious about what he was going to say. "Then…" he swallowed hard, "you said those things and…you made all those sexy faces and sounds… You, well, some part of you, liked what I was doing. So…I kept doing it because…no one's ever let me touch them like that before…" he admitted almost shamefully. "And no one's ever liked it when I touched them."

"I didn't _let_ you touch me," Lee insisted, obviously wounded by the notion that he had given any form of consent at all.

"Right…" Gaara agreed and then looked away. "But…it felt kinda good…right?" he tried. "Or you wouldn't have…ya know," he trailed off for the sake of his companion's modesty.

Lee's jaw dropped in astonishment and by the time he had gathered his words and turned to speak, he found the shorter teen slowly starting to crawl toward him. Without thinking, he moved away a little and to his surprise, Gaara stopped his advance and sat back down with a curious look on his face. "I don't know why I reacted that way," Lee tried to dismiss. "I didn't want to. It wasn't fair," he complained.

"Why didn't you? I promised not to hurt you," he informed as though that should have been sufficient coaxing.

The dark-haired teen almost started laughing again when he realized how quickly Gaara's intentions shifted from wanting him to suffer to wanting him to enjoy himself. He trembled a little inside when he also realized that Gaara had the potential to make him scream and beg either way. Lee gave a heavy sigh, he was starting to get tired and wanted to go to bed. "You just want me to admit I'm less than you are. Well, it's not going to happen. Even if you are stronger than me, it doesn't make you better," he griped in a tired voice.

Lee's words made the familiar animosity start to stir in Gaara again but the way they were spoken kept it in check. For a moment, right before Lee had spoken, he held a glimmer of hope that they might reach some sort of understanding. No suck luck. He stood and brushed the stray pine needles from his pants.

"I'm not sorry for what I did…but I'm sorry it embarrasses you," he informed and walked away.

Lee almost screamed in frustration but he didn't want Gaara to hear him. It blew his mind that the other young ninja could be so arrogant, so forceful, and so aloof while at the same time making him feel like he was the bad guy.


	3. Hate

Over the next few days, Lee and Gaara met in the afternoon however, it was all a charade. Once they saw the other was at the training ground, they went their separate ways to lay low. However, by the fourth day, Lee had grown fed up with the situation as it was and decided to do something about it, as he was a young man of action. The trouble came in trying to figure out what to do that wouldn't make the situation significantly worse. He still had the option of reporting the assault, as it was decidedly out of line. But he no longer felt compelled to do that. The incident was so random and so bizarre that he couldn't bring himself to turn him in for it. After all, lightly molesting someone his own age definitely didn't make it onto the big list of all the really terrible things Gaara had done in his short life. That thought struck Lee a little more than he expected. He hardly expected himself to be rationalizing for Gaara.

Gaara was surprised that Lee didn't immediately change his uniform, not realizing that he was afraid of drawing too much attention to something he didn't want to fully explain. However, he almost wished that he had because now seeing Lee dressed like that stirred something inside Gaara, something warm and largely unfamiliar. It was the unfamiliarity that made him wait to see what the slightly older young man would do. Since he was the one who would be punished if others found out, he kept his mouth shut. On top of the fact that even he knew how weird it would look if he turned himself in, part of him still wanted Lee to be angry enough to get him sent home so that the entire ordeal could be over but that part of him felt like it was getting smaller.

He expected that shrinking feeling to drag him back into the state of despondent apathy that he felt when he first came to the Leaf Village but he was wrong. It was replaced by the infectious warmth of the one he had wronged over and over again, this time possibly irreparably. He wondered why it took that to make him realize that in Lee, he could have had a real friend, something that had not really been an option before. He always swore that he didn't need friends and his resolve in that was very strong right up until his fight with Naruto. The crazy blonde had convinced him that having others to fight for and with was a better purpose for fighting than simply to validate his existence. But then, what could validate a ridiculous existence like his now?

It had been quite some time since Gaara had really thought about these things and he was almost thankful that Lee felt the need to avoid him for a while so that he could use their training time to sit and consider them at length. He would have laughed if it wasn't so sad when he realized that this was the first real human mistake he had made. All the others before it he could blame partially on Shukaku but this time, he knew that the demonic presence inside him had not coaxed him into behaving that way. He almost threw up when he realized that he had done it out of a deep need for human contact more than any of the other rationalizations he could come up with. Upon realizing that, he wondered if it had dawned on him soon, what he would have done and gave a little grumble at the thought that he would have behaved much the same way simply because he was largely incapable of dealing with his feelings in any direct way.

Though, something about Lee that made his stomach flutter in a way that had only happened to him only once in his life. There had been a girl in his village, when he was younger. She was the same age as him, six years old, so it was only a vague memory. All he could really remember was that he had tried to hold her hand, she freaked out and he ended up killing her. However, this little tickle in his belly was a bit different. It hit him differently. It was more widespread and the more he thought about Lee the more it seemed to spread, like some sort of ridiculous infection.

Yet, he couldn't help feeling compelled by the slightly older, slightly taller young man. After all, there was something to be said for someone who continued to stand up to him even though he had been so thoroughly beaten. But it was more than that. There was something about his personality that was disarmingly warm and inviting, something that drew him closer. He felt that this was what had initially made him move in so closely in the first place. Then, once he was there, it seemed he couldn't help noticing how attractive Lee was and how flattering his choice of uniform happened to be. At which point, he decided to place at least half of the blame for the strange encounter on Lee for being so provocative in the first place.

* * *

So, one day almost a week later, Lee woke up and decided that today was the day he was going to talk to Gaara about what happened. All things considered, he was pretty much over the trauma of the incident, now that he'd had sufficient time to process it, and he wanted the charade of their training to end.

That afternoon, when he entered the training ground, he caught sight of Gaara about the same time Gaara saw him. They made eye contact, as they usually did to acknowledge one another, and then he turned to leave.

"Gaara, wait," Lee called suddenly just before the other took his first step away.

The shorter teen stopped and waited for Lee to approach without saying anything. Then, once he parted his lips to speak, he interrupted. "What is it?"

Lee gave a nervous laugh at being cut off. "Look, if what we were doing before was pointless, that what we're doing now is ludicrous," he complained.

Gaara rolled his eyes. "Do you think it's _my_ place to do something about that? I was only following your lead," he shrugged.

"Do you really want me to say something about it? I'm sure it'll be more than enough reason to send you away," Lee offered.

The shorter teen gave a confused little sneer. He could hardly believe that Lee was offering to turn him not for his own personal justice but to benefit Gaara. "I'm not sure it's really worth saying anything about at this point. I mean, if you were really upset, you would have done something about it by now," he reasoned harshly.

"Well, I…" Lee stammered, more than a little put off by that response.

"I think you liked it," Gaara suddenly accused, not because he believed it but because he wanted to see how the other would react. He was too calm and he wanted to rile him up a bit.

"How dare you say that!" Lee's fists shook with the urge to punch the shorter teen.

"Tch," he scoffed. "Then why not run to your sensei and tell on me?" he taunted. "I think you're too ashamed to tell anybody about what happened because you liked it," he accused.

Lee was absolutely aghast. "Take that back!" he screamed and finally let loose on his training partner. He didn't care anymore that his physical strength was no match for his opponent. He was so absolutely furious that he could hardly see straight. All he wanted to do was hurt Gaara and the feeling was so foreign and overwhelming that all he could do was obey.

Caught by surprise by the first blow, Gaara deflected the second and managed to dodge the third. Usually, he had no problem evading Lee's attacks but this time, he had trouble keeping up. "See? You wouldn't get this angry if I was wrong," he couldn't help throwing a little more gas on the fire.

"I'm angry because it's a lie!" Lee continued his relentless assault until he was out of breath and could no longer stand.

"Is it really a lie?" Gaara asked in a dark, dangerous voice from a few meters away.

"Of course it is! How could I possibly have enjoyed myself? If nothing else, you never even gave me the chance!" Lee blurted out, not fully aware of what he was saying.

However, Gaara picked up on the subtle undercurrent in the other teen's voice and it made that strange little fluttering in his stomach again, but this time, not just his stomach. He felt it in his heart too and it made his breath catch a little. Then, realizing that his reaction had drawn a fair amount of Lee's attention, he laughed loudly. "Are you saying, then, that you could have enjoyed yourself if I had let you?" he proposed haughtily.

"What? No! Of course not! Stop twisting my words around!" he screamed, only then noticing the little trickle of blood that was starting to run out of Gaara's nose. He didn't think that his attacks had made any real impact but apparently he was wrong.

"Stop fucking with me then!" Gaara screamed back, incapable of dealing with how he was feeling. He lashed out but it was a clumsy effort and Lee rolled out of the way just in time.

"What is the matter with you? I haven't done anything to you!" he hoarsely growled as he regained his footing.

That made Gaara even more angry. "Maybe you didn't have to _do_ anything. Maybe it's your existence that makes me crazy," he propose accusingly. "You're a nuisance! Go tell your sensei what happened and get it over with!"

"Well, I can't stop existing just because it bothers you," Lee muttered and tried to walk away.

"Good! The sooner I get out of here the better! I don't ever want to see your ugly face again!" Gaara called after him, but there was a hurt in his voice that gave away some of his truer feelings.

"I'm not going to report you," Lee informed, looking over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.

"What?" Gaara snapped harshly.

"I'm not going to let you run away from this. If you want to get out of here that badly, find someone else to play your victim," he informed and with a surprising amount of resolve, continued walking away.

"Won't _let_ me? _You_ won't let me?" Gaara almost started laughing maniacally right then but kept it to a slightly deranged giggle as he brought his sand up around Lee's feet and knees again.

Before the shorter teen could come around to face him, Lee took a deep breath and centered himself. He knew something like this might happen, and that he could never really prepare for what the sociopathic teen might do so he just tried to stay calm as long as possible.

"What? You're not even going to fight me this time?" Gaara taunted as he moved around to face his comrade. "Now I'm really starting to believe that you did like it. Maybe you want more?" he proposed haughtily but to his dismay he only received a minor reaction, a slight twitch of Lee's incredible eyebrows. "Won't let me," he scoffed again after a moment. "Like I need your permission. It appears that I can do whatever I please."

Lee didn't speak and hardly moved. He knew that anything he said or did would draw even more ire.

"What? Can't you even speak now?" the shorter teen taunted again but received no response. "Pathetic," he grumbled as he decided to pick up where he had left off last time. To his surprise, even though he did receive some very interesting flinches in response to his inquisitively invasive touches, Lee's hands remained at his sides. His fists clenched with tremendous resolve. "You're really not going to fight me, are you?" he asked with a childish curiosity.

Lee took a deep breath before answering. "Fighting you only hurts me more," he explained shortly because he knew that anything he did would been seen as a provocation. "This is bad enough," he added with a quiet sigh.

Something about that response made Gaara's eyes light up with desire and that was when he went from just touching Lee because it bothered him to actually groping him because he wanted to. When he looked up a moment later, after he had made sure that Lee's nipples were as hard as they could be, he saw a light flush decorating his partner's cheeks. He hadn't noticed it the first time because he just considered it a result of his struggle for freedom. But now he wasn't fighting yet the blush remained, even grew a little when Lee realized he was being stared at so intently.

"Please…at least tell me why," Lee asked through gritted teeth when the eye contact became too uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" Gaara distractedly replied as he looked down at Lee's crotch. He could see his member through his pants but it was still disappointingly soft.

"Why me? And why this? It doesn't make any sense!"

"I already told you. You're nice to me…most of the time," he added with a slight grumble.

Lee could hardly believe that was all it took but he didn't dare say anything of that sort. "Wh-What if someone else was nice to you, nicer then me? Would you do this to them too?"

"I hadn't really thought about it," he dismissed, returning his attention to the pert little nipples sticking out at him. He wanted to touch them even more so he started to go for the zipper at his neck.

He violent flinched when it started to unzip and he was torn between his previous conviction for passive resistance and his instinct for modesty. "You know, this is a really good way to get someone to stop being nice to you," Lee finally snapped.

"I thought trying to kill you would do that," the shorter teen muttered but ended up trailing off as the zipper descended and he was afforded his first look at Lee's lightly scared chest.

Lee flinched again when Gaara brought his other hand up next to his skin but faltered when he didn't actually touch him. He wanted to ask what the deal was but decided it was best not to.

Gaara had gotten distracted by the difference in their skin tone. He found it more than a little ironic that even though he lived in the desert, Lee's skin was much tanner, and made his look almost porcelain by comparison. He waited until the zipper ran into the red belt around the taller teen's waist before pulling the garment away from his chest.

He opened his mouth to speak but like on his initial approach, he was interrupted, this time unintentionally.

The fairer teen, with a strong grip on either side of Lee's shirt, suddenly looked upward into the dark eyes staring down at him full of fear and pleading. "Why are you so damn sexy?" he suddenly screamed.

Lee's jaw dropped in astonishment, "What?" he gasped.

"It's like everything you do antagonizes me! What is it about you that makes me want to do things to you that you don't want me to?" he demanded.

"I-I…I don't know… I'm sorry… I don't mean to-" Lee babbled apologetically but the look Gaara was giving him stole his words. It was something torn between rage, misery, and intense longing.

When Gaara could sense that his expression was betraying too much of his true feelings, he looked away again as he pulled the shirt open and just far enough off his shoulders to readily expose his nipples. Lee gasped when instead of continuing to toy with them using his hands, the shorter teen's mouth descended on his chest, enveloping the right while, while his hand worked the left.

When he withdrew a moment from the lightly heaving chest for a breath of air, he spoke, "Just tell me…is this unpleasant because of how it feels or because it's me?"

Lee didn't want to admit that it was a mix of both. The combination of his physical inexperience and the relationship he had with Gaara just made him shake his head no.

"It's me, isn't it?" Gaara accused offhandedly before flicking Lee's right nipple with the tip of his tongue. Then, he thoughtfully pulled back for a moment. He wanted one really good look into Lee's eyes. "Close your eyes," he suggested.

"You can't be serious! It's not like I could forget it's you!" Lee argued contemptuously.

Gaara gave him a strangely bemused look and then put a shield of sand over the taller teen's eyes. He was a little surprised that Lee didn't argue after that, though it was in fitting with his attitude this afternoon.

He almost whimpered when the young man binding, and now blinding, him went back to teasing his chest with his tongue. At first, he was glad that he wouldn't have to look Gaara in the eye while he touched him but now he wasn't so sure. It seemed as though the darkness heightened the rest of his senses and made him more susceptible to what was being done to him. He had been so distracted by the feelings in his chest that he didn't notice his length begin to engorge until it shifted in his pants. That's when he whimpered and he couldn't believe how desperate and pathetic he sounded. Even before he received a response for it, he knew he would be berated for his outburst of weakness.

On the contrary, Gaara stopped what he was doing and awed upward at what he could still see of Lee's face, taught with anxiety. It took him a moment to notice the hardness that he had provoked because the little sound that the dark-haired teen made caused a slight shifting in his pants as well. When he reached for the growing length, perfectly out lined in shining green, Lee flinched and it made him hesitate.

"Can you see anything?" Gaara questioned curiously.

"Of course I can't see anything," Lee breathlessly replied, surprised that was the question he was being asked.

"Are you sure?" he reached for the erection again but this time Lee didn't flinch.

"I'm quite s-aaah!" Lee trailed off into a half-scream half-moan as Gaara lightly set his hand over the length. They could both feel it harden a little more under his touch. That's when he started to panic. "Let me go! I'll do anything! I'll turn you in right now, if that's what you want!" he pleaded.

"Lee," Gaara told him seriously, "I won't let you run away from this," he informed.

The taller teen gasped at having his own words used against him. "This is completely different!"

"Is it really? Would you say that I'm torturing you right now?" he proposed haughtily.

Lee didn't answer because he silently agreed.

"And I find it torturous to be here, especially with you, so I'd say this makes us even," he growled dangerously but when Lee started to protest again, he removed his hand. "Don't be such a baby," he scolded, starting to work his belt.

Lee almost started crying. "J-Just tell me then…what are you going to do to me?"

"I don't rightly know. I'm sort of making this up as I go along," he admitted with a lighthearted laugh. "You might say that I'm exploring the springtime of my youth," he teased, tossing the article aside. "You should be happy I'm even considering your philosophy."

"My philosophy doesn't involve abusing people!" Lee raged fitfully, but only in voice because he was afraid any resistance of his body would make his situation worse.

Gaara gave a low, dim chuckle, "Compared to some of the other things I've done, I might as well make you a cake."

Lee sighed in resignation and gave up again but when Gaara finally tired of teasing his chest and started to move lower, he spoke again. "I-If you're going to do anything more…please don't do it here," he pleaded.

The shorter teen shot a quizzical look upward but it went unappreciated by his blinded partner. "As you wish," he readily agreed, scooping him up in his arms and running away from the training ground. When Lee shifted uncomfortably in his arms, he asked, "What's the matter?" because he looked a bit pale all of a sudden.

The blind movement was starting to make him dizzy, even a little lightheaded. "Let me see?" he asked wearily.

Gaara didn't answer that request until they touched down in what he considered a sufficiently secluded location. He couldn't help smiling at the way Lee's vivid, round eyes blinked at the sudden brightness.

"Wh-Where are we?" he asked carefully.

"Does it matter? I don't think I've seen anyone for kilometers," he offered.

"K-Kilometers?" he repeated quietly, unaware that Gaara could travel quite that fast.

"Look," the shorter teen grew serious once again as he started to crawl toward his partner. "I won't hold your feet, if you don't try to run away," he bargained.

Lee hesitated and had to look away from Gaara's approaching form to think. Unfortunately, he looked down and caught a good look at himself. His shirt was open, showing off his still-hard nipples, and he felt naked already without his belt, which had been disregarded more carelessly than he would have liked, and then there was the bulge in his crotch, which had lessened slightly from lack of intimate attention. By the time he looked back up, the fair young man was nearly on top of him, darkly circled eyes boring into him, stripping him before his hands got the chance. "Aaah, Gaara," he gasped at the sudden closeness and to his surprise, Gaara stopped his advance, sitting back on his feet.

"Lee, I don't want to hurt you," he insisted.

"Then don't do this," the dark-haired teen countered.

"I want to see if I can make you feel good," Gaara pointed out as though it was a new challenge set before him.

Lee still recoiled slightly when Gaara crawled on top of him, one knee set between his legs, the other off to his side. Gaara waited until Lee was flat against the ground before brushing his lips against the thin, but some how slightly plump, rosy lips. When all he got was teeth, he pulled back, a little disappointed. "I've never kissed anyone before… Have you?" he questioned curiously.

He stammered for a moment, "Ah-n-n-no," he managed.

That pleased Gaara greatly and he descended once again. This time, he didn't bother with Lee's lips. He kissed his cheeks, his chin, and then up his jaw to his ear. After nearly awing at how instinctively Lee turned his head away to give him more room, he nipped at his earlobe, earning a strangled whimper in response. He couldn't help growling into the taller teen's ear as he ran his tongue along the outer rim before slowly starting to slide down his body. Lee shuddered at the affection and that involuntary reaction only served to egg him on.

Since Lee's hands were tightly wrapped, and would therefore provide the biggest obstacle in getting him naked, which he just decided he wanted to do, he started there. He sat up a bit, not realizing until his weight rested on Lee's hips until he could feel his growing erection press into his butt. He almost jerked away but the feeling of it engorging further under his weight made him sit down even harder.

Lee grit his teeth and looked away, incapable of understanding how his body could so violently betray him, until the short young man sitting in his lap carefully took one of his hands and started to unwrap the strip of cloth wrapped around his hand and forearm. His touches were disarmingly gentle. He found it almost unnerving when he realized that he had expected a more violent, more forceful approach after agreeing not to run away.

He almost died when, after the wrapping was tossed aside, Gaara took a moment to examine his battered knuckles and then gave him a soft, whisper of a kiss on the back of his hand. "Th-This is crazy… Why are you doing that?" He barely fought the urge to pull his hand away.

"This is crazy," Gaara agreed with a light chuckle as he set down that hand to unwrap the other. "Would you prefer I do something else?"

"I-I don't know. How about not doing anything?" he weakly suggested.

Gaara couldn't help feeling that response indicated more of a token resistance than a genuine desire to get away, even if he knew that wasn't really the case. "I want to see all of you," he informed with an undercurrent of lust in his tone that he was unaware he was capable of.

"A-A-A-All? All of me?" Lee stammered helplessly, feeling absolutely miniscule beneath the young man leering down at him.

"That's right," he licked his lips as he tossed the other long strip of fabric aside. "Now, sit up," he ordered.

Lee gave a petulant frown and cross his arms over his chest.

Gaara reeled back, almost to slap him but that urge faded as quickly as it came. Instead he matched the look with an equally petulant frown of his own with a disapprovingly irritated glare to match. "Do it," he ordered.

"No. I can't stop you but I'm certainly not going to help you!" Lee almost laughed.

"Hmph," Gaara huffed childishly, his frown deepening when he noticed that the way Lee was covering his chest was coving his nipples. So, he decided to push things a little further and finally gave into the urge to grind his ass against the turgid length pressing between his cheeks.

"Aaaha," Lee barely kept his hips from jerking upward. That pressure had made him engorge the rest of the way and his entire body flushed.

The young man on top gave a pleased, even affectionate little giggle. "Lee-kun, do you sometimes touch yourself?" he brazenly asked.

Again, he was aghast at the question being asked of him and fitfully shook his head no.

"Don't you?" he asked curiously. He wouldn't have believed that from anyone else but somehow he believed that Lee deserved the benefit of the doubt.

He blushed even harder and screwed his eyes shut.

"Hey," Gaara snapped. "If you're just going to close your eyes, I'm going to cover them again," he threatened.

Lee acquiesced to the threat by opening one of his eyes a sliver. "Please don't ask me those kinds of things. This is embarrassing enough as it is!" he complained.

"'Caught my brother doing it a couple times, think I even caught my sister once. I used to think it was a disgusting thing to do…but sometimes it's the only thing that makes me feel better," he admitted with an accusatory shamefulness.

"D-Does this make you feel better?" Lee asked automatically and then almost clasped his hand over his mouth to keep anymore unthoughtout words from escaping.

Gaara knew that it did and that it would be even more enjoyable if Lee was a willing participant in the affair but since he was generally quite a bit better at keeping his thoughts to himself, he didn't say anything like that. Instead, he reached out and took one of Lee's hands again. There was some resistance at first but it didn't last. Once he was sure his lead would at least be momentarily followed, he pulled the hand toward his body.

Lee was practically holding his breath, which he found he often did when Gaara touched him so forwardly, until his hand touched the hardness in the shorter teen's pants. Then, he gasped and tried to jerk his hand away but the grip on his hand became too strong too quickly for him and he was forced to continue contact. "Aaagh," he grunted as his entire body tensed.

"This is what you do to me," Gaara asserted as he barely started to move the hand beneath his up and down.

"I-Is that why you want to touch me?" Lee's hand trembled as he spoke so that his voice would be unwavering.

Gaara bit his bottom lip and nodded. His stomach was twisting itself into knots and if something didn't give soon, he thought he would lose his mind. He wanted to do things to the handsome young man beneath him but what exactly, he wasn't sure. The heat was too much and he was starting to lose control because the fluttering that he had felt in his stomach and heart was now also in his groin. Even just forcing that little bit of contact was inflaming it.

Lee was astonished at the rather drastic change in demeanor in the young man above him. He no longer seemed angry or really that forceful; he almost looked desperate and needy. The feeling of Gaara's length twitching from the minimal attention put him into action and he started to rub him of his own accord.

The fairer teen gasped sharply at the change and his entire body flushed four shades darker. He almost moaned the other's name but couldn't get it past his lips because they were too busy tingling with the desire to try to kiss him again. "I-I thought you weren't going to help me," he barely muttered as he rocked his hips both against Lee's palm and his erection.

"Do you want me to stop?" he offered, ironically worrying if he was overstepping his bounds.

"For fuck sake," Gaara grumbled as he took Lee by his open collar and pulled him upright into a passionate kiss. He wasn't normally one to pray, but he found himself begging whatever higher power that might be listening to make Lee kiss him back this time.

He didn't right away, instinctively flinching at the initial contact. When he felt something warm and wet snake along his bottom lip, he gasped and before he knew it, Gaara's tongue was in his mouth. He gave a muffled sound of protest and when that didn't work, he pushed back with his own tongue, attempting to force the intruder out of his mouth.

The shorter teen gave a pleased growl and continued the battle in a manner that was unusually playful for him. He was just so giddy that Lee was kissing him, or at least responding to his kiss, that he couldn't help it. On top of that, the feeling of Lee's soft, warm tongue rubbing against his own made him even more aroused so since Lee was now sitting up, regardless of how it happened, Gaara proceeded to pull his top down off his shoulders. He was content to leave the sleeves bunched up around the darker teen's forearms but his partner apparently disliked how severely that restricted his movement and finished removing it himself.

Lee felt a little strange as he removed his sleeves, well stranger than he already did because he was willingly finishing the removal of his shirt without being asked or ordered to. However, he knew as soon as the sleeves caught at his wrists and Gaara withdrew his hands from there to play with his chest again as they continued their kiss, it was too much like being bound for his comfort.

He opened his eyes a little to do so, only then realizing that he had shut them a few moments after Gaara's mouth met his, and flushing a little at the implication. However, there was something that distracted him from that implication and that was the look on the little bit of Gaara's face that he could see. His eyes were shut now as well, filling in the dark circles around his eyes, they appeared relaxed, not tightly screwed shut, as Lee's had been, and there was a slight knit in the smaller teen's brow, just above the bridge of his nose. Just from his eyes, he thought Gaara looked almost as though he was sleeping and in the middle of some kind of dream. That notion struck Lee as ironic, since the young man now seemingly in his lap never slept. Still, he couldn't help pulling away a moment later, both to catch his breath and to get an even better look at his partner.

"Aaah," Lee gasped lightly when he finally tore his lips away from Gaara's realizing that he had somehow been led into not just fighting the intruder out of his mouth but actually doing some intruding of his own. It only took a moment for his breathing to even out but it seemed Gaara was having trouble catching his breath. "Are you okay?" he asked carefully, once again because the intense silence had become too much for him.

"Please stop asking me that," Gaara weakly requested and then smiled a little when he saw how rosy the lips he had just been kissing now were.

"I'm sorry-" he tried but was cut off.

"And don't say that either," he snapped but it still lacked conviction.

"I suppose next you'll tell me to shut up entirely," Lee huffed, once again crossing his arms over his chest.

"No…" Gaara slowly replied. "I don't think I'd go that far."

"I just want to make sure…I know you snap at me because you're not used to people really wanting to know if you're alright," he defensively accused.

"Haven't I already proven to you that I'm not? Do I really _have _to say it again?" he countered but then had a sudden thought. "Is that what you want? Do you _want_ me to tell you how very not okay I am right now?" he proposed almost hopefully.

Lee faltered and then gave a defeated little frown. He definitely didn't want to sit and listen to the epic laundry list of Gaara's issues, at least not right this second, but he didn't know what to say to that. If he said yes, that's exactly what he'd get but he feared that if he said no, he would only elicit more disappointment and violently erratic behavior. Then, he noticed how especially small and vulnerable the maniacal tyrant appeared now that he was aroused beyond reason and sitting in his lap, still lightly grinding his ass against his erection. He knew not to trust that appearance too fully but he might be able to use the lapse to his advantage.

Without warning, Lee reached up, placing one hand behind Gaara's neck and pulling him into another kiss. It was the perfect answer and he was rewarded with the fairer young man letting his guard down just a little more, even giving a startled little moan. Feeling bold, he wrapped his other arm around his waist as he propped up one of his legs and rolled them over so that he was on top with Gaara lying on his back on the ground.

"Lee, what are you doing?" Gaara tried to demand but his body easily gave into the initiative shown by the body pressed against his.

Again, he faltered slightly, but only because he hadn't exactly thought about what he should do from there. Without thinking, he pulled back a little to think, breaking the majority of the physical contact that he had created between them. He looked down at the flushed body beneath him, squirming and twitching slightly in response to stimuli that he couldn't rightly identify. He couldn't help hesitating. Only minutes before he had wanted Gaara to stop what he was doing and forget everything. Now, he felt compelled to do some touching of his own, either to show Gaara how embarrassing it was or, if that didn't work, at least see how serious the volatile young man was.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Gaara shifted a little under the scrutinizing gaze, still more than a little surprised at having been rolled over like that. He knew it was a sign that the taller young man wanted more control over his situation, but how much? And even more importantly, how much control would Gaara be willing to give him. He almost laughed when he realized that he would likely let Lee do anything he wanted as long as he got to keep kissing him.

"Why do you keep touching my chest?" he asked suddenly.

"I can touch you elsewhere, if you'd prefer," Gaara offered generously hopeful.

"That's _not_ what I meant," Lee scolded.

The shorter teen, now on his back, gave a petulant frown. "Because I think you'll freak out again if I try anything else," he admitted.

"Would you let me touch you like that?" he suddenly proposed, hardly able to believe how even he was able to keep his voice.

Gaara's breath hitched at the thought. Sure, at this point, it was something he wanted, but because of Lee's attitude, he didn't expect any sort of reciprocation for his physical affections. Even after he coaxed Lee to touch him through his pants, he didn't think he'd get anymore than that. His body gave him away even before he could form the words.

The young man on top almost gasped again when he felt Gaara's erection, which due to his repositioning, rested firmly against his thigh, give a violent pulse. He could see in Gaara's eyes that the intensity of his involuntary, visceral reaction startled him almost to the point of panic so just as he was about to try to scramble away, Lee pushed his shirt up and leaned down to his chest.

The fair teen gasped and tried to jerk away but between being pinned beneath Lee and the grip on his shirt, he wasn't going anywhere. When the initial shock of Lee's soft, warm mouth on his left nipple subsided, he found his back arching off the ground in an attempt to force more contact. "Aaah, Lee…" he quietly gasped. He had toyed with his own nipples before, which was why he was aware of how erotic it could be, but he never imagined how good the attention could feel when coming from someone else.

At the sound of his own name, Lee almost pulled away but the way that Gaara's hands flew to his body, grasping at him and pulling him closer, made him continue without faltering. Once that nipple was hard under his tongue, he moved to the other, eliciting an even more heated gasp than the first time from just breathing on the young man's fair skin. He watched in awe as it only took the feeling of his warm breath tickling Gaara's skin to make his right nipple harden instantly. Then, once it was completely hard, he went back to what he was doing.

As he continued, he found that the hardest part of Gaara to control, at least at the moment, was his hips. This was because the sand ninja had already long given up attempting to have enough self-control to keep from grinding mindlessly against the body above his, hoping that if he shifted his hips just right, he might be able to rub their erections together.

When he couldn't take it anymore, Gaara nearly shouted, "Let me touch you more…more than just your chest. I have to do something, I feel so ridiculously useless like this!"

That made Lee think a bit. Where he had felt helpless, Gaara felt useless and he knew that neither feeling was very good. "Fine," he agreed, holding back as much of the reluctance from his tone as he could. "But if I tell you to stop, and you don't, I'm done," he threatened, knowing that if Gaara chose to continue an encounter past that point, he wouldn't be able to stop him but at the same time, it seemed that would disappoint him.

Gaara gave a fitful nod and finally let his hands wander. The very first thing they did was each take a handful of Lee's ass and squeeze, grinding their hips harder against one another and giving a deep moan in the process. To Lee's surprise, Gaara's hands stayed their for quite some time, seemingly content with simply groping and grinding against him as he fondled the fair young man's pert little nipples with his fingers and tongue.

When Gaara gave a particularly rough squeeze, Lee flinched and ended up biting down a little on the already slightly swollen nipple in his mouth. It made the shorter teen yelp in surprise and instinctively push Lee away to see if it was intentional.

"Ah, sorry, you startled me, I guess," Lee managed when he saw the inquisitive look on his partner's face.

The involuntary aggression hadn't hurt Gaara as much as it startled him so when he found out that it wasn't meant as a warning of some sort, he wanted more. "Do it again," he urged.

Lee faltered, "W-What?"

"Bite me again," he continued to urge as he resumed the sureness in the motion of his hips.

Because he didn't want to hear the request again, Lee leaned back down but he didn't oblige right away. He preferred to preface such an intimate aggression with something a little softer first and brushed his lips across the unbruised nipple a couple times before gathering the courage to do it. Even then, it wasn't as hard as when he hadn't intended to do it. That didn't seem to matter, though, as indicated by the heated growl he elicited.

A short while later, one of Gaara's hands snaked beneath Lee's uniform to grab his erection. When he could feel how hard Lee was now, how his member seemed to pulse with his heartbeat, he decided to take action and pulled Lee's uniform down to his knees, or as close as he could reach, before rolling them over again. Without a word, he pulled his shirt up over his head and tossed it aside.

"N-Now what?" Lee asked anxiously.

"Now I'm going to have sex with you because if I don't, I think my head will explode," he informed casually as he wiggled out of his pants.

"S-S-No! Gaara, I've never done that before!" Lee protested.

"Do you want my head to explode?" he chided, his voice betraying his lustful disregard for the other's desires.

"No, of course not," he pleaded, not really thinking about the exaggeration. "Just…isn't there something else?" he offered hopefully.

"No, I finally figured out exactly what I want from you," he informed rather harshly.

"But you promised not to hurt me!" Lee finally pleaded, his voice more desperate than he imagined.

Gaara quirked an odd look as he moved to straddle Lee's waist. "And I won't," he assured him, almost irritated at being questions at this stage of the game.

Lee's heart nearly stopped when he realized what Gaara was going to do and he didn't recover until Gaara was spreading his cheeks and trying to lower himself down without any preparation.

"H-Have you done this before?" he suddenly questioned as he took hold of Gaara's hips in an attempt to keep him elevated.

"No," Gaara snapped.

"Then how do you know this is what you want?" he tried.

The shorter teen frowned. "I just do. I know it's what I want. If I'm wrong, I'll be my fault," he asserted.

"But you're…" he trailed off, unsure how graphic he should be in his protest.

"I'm what?" he growled.

"You're not ready…" he managed.

"Tch, if you've never even kissed anybody before today then how the hell do you know if I'm ready," Gaara nearly raged. His hormones were screaming out of control and if Lee didn't stop talking soon, he might have to shut him up.

"I know that while you_ can_ probably do what you want that if you do it this way, it's going to hurt a lot…" he continued to try.

Gaara didn't care. He ignored the warning and positioned the head of Lee's cock at his virgin entrance. There was enough precum to help the head slide in with relative ease but everything after that was dry, leaving him with the torturous sensation of the sudden stretching and tearing of his anus. He could tell he was bleeding even before he managed to take the whole thing but kept going and found the blood to be a fair lubricant.

All Lee could do was watch, torn between the agony of watching Gaara cause himself so much pain and the pleasure of the searing heat that slowly engulfed him. "Aaah, Ga-Gaara," he muttered just as their hips made contact.

The sound of his name made Gaara focus his gaze on the one below him once again. "What…is it?" he breathily questioned.

"I don't want you to hurt yourself for me," he pleaded.

Then, Gaara did something that neither of them really expected. He laughed and it was a genuinely hearty laugh. "The pain isn't for you. If it was, you'd be sitting on my dick," he reasoned. "I want it," he asserted through a wince as he rolled his hips.

Lee believed that even if he didn't understand it and simply gave a dumb nod in response and felt himself smiling vaguely at the sound of the other's laughter.

Upon seeing the slight smile, Gaara had the confidence to roll his hips a little harder and a moment later, his whole body jerked because Lee's member brushed against his prostate. He gasped and feel forward a little, catching himself by leaning on the lean torso before him.

The reaction startled Lee and he reached up to Gaara again, first to his shoulders but then, when he no longer thought his partner might fall off of him, his hands slid downward, over his chest. He felt Gaara shudder from the sensation of him brushing his hands over his nipples both through his hands and through his cock. It made his eyes grow wide and he sat up once again to kiss the young man squirming in his lap. He never dreamed that he could make someone else react in such a way, let alone this person.

Gaara moaned and wrapped his arms around Lee's neck as he kissed back. When Lee reciprocated by moving his hands even further down to his hips to take hold of him there, he started to raise up so that he could impale himself again. The withdraw was more intense than he expected and he ended up breaking their kiss with a hiss as he grit his teeth.

"Gaara?" Lee asked in a careful, quavering voice.

"What?" he tried to snap but it sounded more like a plea.

"It's tearing me apart that this causes you so much pain. There has to be another way," he pleaded even though all his body seemed to want to do was take a firmer hold on those fair, thin hips and burry himself inside until he couldn't anymore.

Gaara almost laughed again, this time because he had just been thinking about how it almost felt like he was being torn in two, but fitfully shook his head 'no' instead. Even through his inexperience, he knew that unless Lee decided to really nail him with all his strength, which was highly unlikely, the worst part was over. All he wanted now was more of the sensation he got when Lee's cock first brushed against his prostate.

Lee gave a sigh and turned to concentrate his effort on keeping Gaara steady. That effort quickly turned into trying to keep him from moving too quickly because once he had withdrawn to the point where only the head remained inside him, Gaara suddenly let his muscles relax and allowed gravity to pull him back down flush with the body beneath him.

A small scream tore through Gaara during his second thrust but it stifled most of the sound as he threw his head back, practically intoxicated by the intense feelings of mixed pleasure and pain. When he tried to do it again and found that although Lee's strong grip on his hips was comforting, it was also slowing him down, he took those hands in his and tried again. This attempt worked much better and he even gave a little groan a couple thrusts later when his prostate was hit again.

Lee could hardly believe the display he was taking part in. Again, he thought about how Gaara was the absolute last person he'd ever think about doing anything intimate with anyone, let alone him. Then, he couldn't help staring at the level of abandon the young man in his lap was exhibiting. He'd seen Gaara let loose before, so he knew some of the characteristics but this time instead of murderous intent, he held an intense air of pleasure, which altered his features to various degrees.

His eyes were sparkling with desire but this time, they weren't as sharp, almost glazed over, and while the little smile that tugged at the corners of his lips was still maniacal, it was also more happy than enraged. Then, there was the sounds he was making. He never dreamed Gaara was even capable of moaning like that let alone how easily the sounds came from him.

Lee was motivated by the abandon he was witness to and detangled one of his hands from Gaara's to grab his length.

"Aaaah," he gasped, "If you do that I'll cum. I really will," he warned but Lee didn't hesitate until after he grasped the throbbing length that bobbed erratically with every thrust.

It took Lee a moment to process the warning he was given and then it took him aback. After all that, he couldn't think of anything else Gaara would want. "Don't you want that?" he asked breathily.

It took Gaara a few seconds to answer because he was so stunned by the offer. He had been decidedly heading that direction but he didn't think Lee would really want him to. "Y-Yeah, but…" he trailed off as he tore his eyes away from the body beneath him for the first time since setting him down in the clearing.

"But what? Does it hurt too much?" Lee tried to slow their thrusts once again but Gaara fought him.

He was past the pain at this point, not that it had stopped hurting, and was a little irked by the suggestion. "I want to see if you can do it first," he admitted, looking back but only out of the corner of his eye.

Lee almost laughed at himself. With everything else running through his mind, and in spite of the pressure building within him, he hadn't really considered letting himself go like that. He was stopped a moment from a chuckle by Gaara removing his hand from his member.

"Grab me again if you start to cum," he ordered and placed his free hand on Lee's chest again. He needed more friction and for that, more leverage.

Some small part of Lee instinctively understood what Gaara wanted and he let go with his other hand to grab Gaara's hip, helping to bring him down a little harder than before. With both his hands free, Gaara was able to balance himself on Lee's torso and arch his back just right for hitting his prostate as frequently as possible. When it was struck more than a couple times in a row, he started to babble a little.

"Aaah, right there, harder, harder," was the gist of what he ended up saying.

The part of Lee's brain that kept reminding him that he should be on his guard, that Gaara was a sociopathic murder, and that none of this should even be happening in the first place finally shut off. Watching and feeling Gaara take so much pleasure in him without causing him pain, save the sliver guilt brought on by the fact that Gaara was bleeding, but even that had been self-induced, made him finally want to enjoy himself. When he would look back on it later, he would realize that he had wanted to enjoy himself the entire time, but he didn't trust Gaara enough for that to happen unless the smaller teen had lost control of his good sense first.

When he knew he couldn't take it anymore, Lee grabbed Gaara's erection again and immediately started to pump. As he did, he kept his eyes locked on the other's face because he longed to see the reaction he would inevitably provoke. To say he was pleased would have been an understatement. He blushed a little more deeply, though it wasn't noticeable at this point, when he realized that Gaara could probably feel his cock twitch inside him when he reacted so readily to him.

He could, but he didn't care except it served to make the experience hotter. Then, when Lee started to cum, he suddenly sat up, an action that happened so quickly that Gaara didn't think, if he had a thinking mind at the moment, that it could be driven by anything but instinct. So, once the taller teen's lips were close enough, he wrapped his arms around his neck and locked their lips together.

The kiss seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back for both of them because a moment later, it was broken by a series of panting moans and a few little grunts as they came together. Lee was stunned by the empathy exhibited by his partner, not realizing it was more than that. Gaara knew there wasn't any other way. If Lee came first, then he would have to deal with a feeling of obligation to finish him off, which would be awkward. Or, if he came first, then he might have to deal with Lee not wanting to finish after that.

But, that didn't matter because they were a gasping pile of limbs tangled on the forest floor moments later.

"Th-Thank you, Lee," Gaara heaved.

"You're welcome?" Lee blinked almost stupidly.

"You're an idiot," the shorter teen grumbled as he tried to detangle himself from the grasp of the other.

"Aw, come on. Let's cuddle," Lee playfully coaxed, knowing that he was obnoxious and not caring as he held on tightly.

"Eeaagh," Gaara complained as he failed to slip away before Lee securely wrapped his arms and legs around him. "Let me go!"

Lee just gave a jovial laugh, showing that he was still experiencing the post-orgasmic high. "Tell me you don't hate me," he tried.

"What?" Gaara tried to become enraged but found he just couldn't manage it.

"Please?" he pouted, holding Gaara's smaller body as close to his as he could.

"I don't hate you," Gaara grumbled. "So, let me go!" he struggled again and Lee grudgingly conceded.

"I don't hate you either," Lee muttered with a wistful smile as he pulled off the rest of his clothes.

"Why aren't you getting dressed?" Gaara questioned incredulously as he picked up his pants.

"'Cause I think I know where we are now and there should be a stream just a few meters that way," he pointed. "We should wash up," he suggested.

Gaara nodded and they traveled to the small body of water in various stages of undress, almost unnerved by the fact that neither of them was terribly uncomfortable traveling like that and washed up before making their way back to the village. It was dark by then and they parted ways with hardly a word.


	4. Interloper

It was bizarre to Lee how easily they got along after that. The very idea that there had been sexual tension between them wasn't something he could have fathomed until after the fact. But the fact was there, staring him the face, often with very dark circles around its eyes. He tried not to think anything of it at first, hoping that the casualness would level out with the rest of Gaara's mood swings if given enough time. However, they weren't given sufficient time before others began to take note of the visiting sand ninja's sudden change in behavior.

"So you and Gaara are gettin' along pretty good now," Naruto began as he walked with Lee one afternoon after a particularly dull assembly.

"Uh, yeah, I guess we are," Lee managed to stave off most of his blush and Naruto was too oblivious to notice what did escape his self control.

"That must be great! How'd you do it?" the blonde pressed giddily. He already felt a certain closeness with Gaara after their rather epic battle but he still felt an unnerving distance between them that he couldn't help wanting to remedy.

"Uh…" Lee stammered. "I-I didn't really _do_ anything," he half-lied. "I was just nice to'im…that's all," he managed.

Naruto nodded. "I guess I'm just not nice enough then," he joked. "'Cause he still seems to hate me. He'll at least look at you when you're talking," he pointed out.

"Er, well, don't take it too personally," Lee tried to coach. The last thing he needed was Naruto going out of his way to be nice to Gaara because of something he had said to cover up what had happened between them. "You know how he is with people. I've just gotten to spend a lot of time with him. And, I don't think it hurts that I've still never managed to beat him," he muttered.

"If you're really spending that much time together, then I'm sure you'll find a way," he winked to add emphasis to his confidence in his friend but it only seemed to make him falter even further.

"Uh, yeah, thanks. It's really not important. I'm just glad we're sort of getting along now," he shrugged.

Naruto gave a nod of understanding and left it at that. He knew what it was like to have to work with someone who didn't like him, and how hard it could be to simply become comfortable around someone like that. He was actually so happy for them that they were getting along, he hardly gave it a second thought.

However, their conversation had set Lee's mental gears into motion. He began to wonder if it was because they had spent so much time together or because he had never beaten Gaara that allowed them to be on intimate terms. Perhaps it was a combination of the two but he didn't know and that was what motivated him into action.

Lee probably would have been surprised to hear that Naruto forgot their conversation almost as soon as it had ended, since it had made such a big impact on him. It made him not only question the nature of their relationship but also gave him some insight into how to best Gaara, even if only a little. Naruto had said that if they spent enough time together, Lee would find a weakness to exploit…if he was looking.

He hadn't been looking for anything more than a physical weakness before his conversation with Naruto. After that, however, he realized that he knew exactly how to catch the other off guard sufficiently to defeat him. The question then became, did he have it in him to do such a thing to someone else. His initial answer to that was 'absolutely not', but the more he considered to what lengths Gaara was willing to go to do what he wanted with Lee. Because of the assembly, they didn't train that day, so Lee had the rest of that day and the first half of the next to decide what he really wanted to do.

The following afternoon, Lee approached their training ground with a picnic basket.

"Did you miss lunch?" Gaara scoffed when he saw the basket.

"Not exactly. I was hoping we could take the day off," he proposed.

Gaara shrugged. "Whatever."

"Great!" Lee gave an extra beaming smile as he led the other off into the forest.

The shorter teen was surprised by how secluded the picnic spot Lee chose was but didn't say anything, simply kicking little rocks into the nearby stream as Lee readied their place setting.

"Here," he set down a full plate a few feet from his hoping the other would join him. It worked and they were soon eating in near silence.

A few minutes later, Lee cracked open his can of soda, giving Gaara an idea. In a flash, he shook his can and opened it just enough to spray his companion in the face.

"Aaah! Uuugh! What the-?" Lee stammered as he wiped the fizzing fluid from his eyes.

Gaara laughed heartily at the other's confusion.

"Jerk!" Lee spat as he threw the rest of his drink at his company.

But Gaara just continued to laugh, shaking his can in Lee's general direction.

"Stop it!" Lee grumbled but when the childish attack didn't cease, he leapt onto Gaara and pinned his shoulders to the ground.

"Mmmm…that didn't take long," Gaara teased in a lecherous voice.

"What?" Lee reeled back, aghast.

"Oh, come on. The food, the blanket, the secluded picnic," he listed eagerly. "You don't have to waste your time doing that kind of thing with me," he offered, trying to pull the taller young man into a kiss.

Lee's round eyes narrowed and he shoved the shorter teen back to the ground, climbing off of him. "That's not what this is about," he protested, obviously hurt.

Gaara gave a mischievous grin and took another bite of his lunch before speaking again. "Then what's up?"

"The only times we ever see each other, we're fighting…except for-uh, ya know. I just thought we could hang out…do something that doesn't involve sweating and grunting," he blushingly proposed.

Gaara gave a crude laugh. "You want to hang out with me? What for?"

"I-I dunno, just 'cause," Lee shrugged but then remembered himself.

"What's the point of all this if you don't wanna have sex?" Gaara asked rudely as he rolled onto his belly, propping his head up on his hands.

Lee gave a distasteful frown. "Is that all you really want from me?" he asked, raising a curious eyebrow.

The shorter teen narrowed his eyes. "What else is there?"

He would have been offended if he wasn't so intrigued by Gaara's brazen attraction to him. "You're just scared of having a real friendship," he accused, unzipping his top.

Gaara's eyebrow twitched at the sound of the other's zipper. "What are you doing?" he hissed accusingly.

"If you're just gunna be a jerk, then forget it," Lee casually snapped as he slid the green uniform off his arms. He couldn't help smiling a little because Gaara couldn't tear his eyes away from Lee's body as it was revealed to him.

The shorter teen gasped lightly and shifted a little when Lee was actually naked in front of him. He craned his neck to watch the nude teen slip into the cool forest stream. Rolling over, he sat up to watch Lee swim in place against the current.

Lee found the cool water very refreshing and more than enough to quell his blushing. He was as flattered as he was annoyed by Gaara's suggestions but what really bothered him was the notion that the slightly younger teen might be incapable of giving him what he wanted in return.

And what was it that Lee had decided he wanted? What goal seemed so outrageous that only he would attempt it? He almost laughed if it wouldn't have gotten water in his mouth. After several long hours of thought, Lee decided that what he wanted most from Gaara was something resembling a middle ground and if that wasn't possible, he wanted Gaara to admit that it wasn't just sex. He didn't think that they would ever be completely comfortable around one another, especially alone, but he knew it could be better than the hot and cold treatment he was receiving from the other young man. Sure, catering to Gaara's whims had been fun but he had also been scared shitless the entire time and because he had been so generous, he felt he deserved more than he was getting.

Gaara sat on the picnic blanket, slowly munching at his meal and watching Lee gracefully swim in the stream. Even though the taller, tanner young man was nude, his swimming sufficiently covered most of what could be considered indecent. When he first noticed this, he expected it to irk him but as he silently looked on, he felt too endeared by the way Lee's hair stuck to his face and too drawn to the rest of the strong curves that he could see to fathom much of the irritation. However, he was still a bit annoyed, feeling as though he was once again being teased by his training partner and this time it didn't seem entirely unintentional.

"I could just steal your clothes and run off," Gaara informed teasingly from his safe distance.

Lee didn't answer except the slightest flash of a smile. Yes, that would be embarrassing but compared to everything else Gaara had put him through, he could live with that kind of childishness.

Gaara caught the smile but was disappointed that that was all. "If I get in there with you, would you get out?" he asked curiously.

That actually caused Lee to pause. At first it sounded like Gaara was looking for a way to chase him out of the water but his tone and facial expression told him otherwise, making him glad that he paused to make eye contact. "Not if that's all you do," he managed to snap before going back to what he was doing.

The shorter teen gave a little growl at the impish defiance that Lee was showing toward him and started to remove his clothes. This time, because they weren't caught up in the heat of the moment, he felt more than a little self-conscious at his exposure. He grumbled, thinking that Lee had to know he intended to do more than simply enter the water. Since they would be naked together, there would invariably be touching and he hoped for more than that as well.

It was strange, he thought to himself as he tested the water with his feet, even though he had proven that he could do whatever he wanted with Lee, somehow it seemed preferable to submit to his petty whims in hopes of a greater affection in response. That was why he entered the stream slowly rather than just jumping in but when Lee paid him no mind for his intrusion, he gave into his own impudence and splashed the swimming young man.

Lee sputtered and drifted back a couple feet before stopping himself, "What was that for?"

"You're being a bitch," Gaara complained.

The dark-haired teen gave a light chuckle and shook his head in exasperation. "And you're being an ass," he replied in a loud but even voice. "Look, is sex all you really want?" he asked again as he swam closer to the shore, where the current was less strong.

"I still don't see anything else that I'd want from you. What else do you want?" the shorter teen followed.

"I don't want to get involved with someone who doesn't really care about me," he informed.

"There you go again, talking about the things you don't want. And you say I'm negative," Gaara gratingly chided, moving in closer.

Just as the fairer young man started to reach for him, Lee splashed him in the face. "I think I could really like you," he admitted, "If you had more than two moods."

"What are you getting at?" Gaara snapped impatiently.

"Sometimes you act like you actually like me…it usually doesn't last very long but I want to know, are those feelings real or are you just messing with me?" Lee pressed with a reluctant hopefulness.

"Are you complaining? It made you easier to deal with," Gaara dismissed.

"Easier…" Lee repeated quietly before deciding what to do. "Okay," he grabbed Gaara by the wrist and pulled him over to the shore where he threw him down on the wet moss.

"Uh," Gaara landed with a thump. "What the-?" he gasped when Lee's hands planted on either side of him.

"You want easy, that's what you'll get," Lee resolutely replied before opening his mouth and attempting to swallow as much of his partner's length as he could.

"Ah, oh, Lee!" the shorter teen gasped, tangling his fingers in the dark hair in his lap.

Only encouraged by Gaara's response, Lee kept up his clumsy effort. He wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible and eagerness drove the shorter teen into a pleasure induced stupor that made him melt on the wet, squishy ground.

Gaara could hardly believe himself, or Lee for that matter. After all that, this seemed too easy but he was too engrossed with how hard Lee's mouth was working to make him cum, that he couldn't think about anything like that. Before he realized what he was doing, the hands he hand tangled in that dark hair started to guide the head in his lap rather than simply grope mindlessly at it. He was on the verge of orgasm in no time.

"Aaah…nngh, Lee, I'm gunna-" he choked out.

Lee gave the slightest of nods, which was all he could offer given his position, and a small sound of assurance. The little sound made an extra shockwave ripple through Gaara and he started to kick weakly and fitfully. The reaction was hard not to notice and Lee did it a couple more times until Gaara came in his mouth with a stifled grunt.

When the last drops of cum shot into his mouth, Lee sat up on his heals. After a second to taste the thick, bitter fluid, he spat it out into the stream. When he turned back, he saw that Gaara was still enjoying his post-orgasmic euphoria so he quietly stood and started packing up their things.

As soon as Lee left his side, Gaara's euphoria faded. He craned his neck to see what the other had abandoned him for. "What're you doing?" he snapped.

"Cleaning up. Unless you're still hungry?" Lee casually replied as he stashed the little containers back in the wicker basket.

Gaara frowned and rolled over onto his belly to see that Lee hadn't gotten dressed before starting to pack. At first, he thought it was to tease him further but then he noticed how enticingly the little beads of water looked as they dried on his skin and realized that he was most likely waiting to dry off a bit before redressing. "So, that's it?" he asked carefully.

"That's all you wanted, right?" Lee presumed in a casually hurtful voice.

Gaara's frown deepened. "What about you?"

The question earned the sand ninja an annoyed little glare. "You just want me to make you feel good so you don't feel like I'm teasing you, right?"

"Yeah, I guess I said that," the shorter teen shrugged.

"And you don't want anything more than sex, right?" Lee continued accusingly.

"Yeah, so?"

"Then you can't do anything for me," he replied evenly as he reached for his pants.

"Don't fuck with me!" Gaara suddenly screamed and scrambled to his feet.

"Gaara-san, that is exactly what I'm trying not to do," Lee shouted back, some of the hurt finally breaking through his voice.

The shorter teen sneered and stomped over to his companion. "What? Like I'm not good enough for you?"

"Apparently, I'm not good enough for you so it's really not worth it for me to try. It'd just be annoying, right?" Lee defended. "I don't see why you're mad. I gave you what you wanted."

Those last few words especially made Gaara's stomach turn because although he was sexually spent, he still felt like he wanted more. With a defensive growl, he took the taller young man by the wrist and pulled him close. "You're not being fair," he accused darkly, knocking the other off his feet and landing on top of him. Before Lee could recover, Gaara ducked down and took the head of taller teen's cock between his lips. "Besides, I saw that sucking me off made you kinda hard," he accused lustily.

It was true that giving Gaara pleasure and having him exhibit such abandon in the process had aroused him a bit but he had it under control shortly after breaking physical contact with the sand ninja. "This is pointless," Lee hissed.

Gaara scoffed and started to suckle on the flacid member before him. He was annoyed that it had softened so quickly and wanted it to return to life as quickly as possible. However, he seemed to have very little luck. "What's the matter with you?" he accused.

"I told you. There's nothing you can do for me," he resolutely replied. It had been difficult to keep his arousal under control with Gaara so desperately teasing him with his mouth but he knew he couldn't give in. He wanted emotional satisfaction and if Gaara wasn't willing to at least try for that, he wasn't going to pretend he enjoyed himself for the sake of the other's ego.

A violent rage flared behind Gaara's eyes but he felt totally defeated so he scooped up his clothes and disappeared to redress elsewhere in private.

Lee felt bad for having to treat Gaara that way. He knew that Gaara probably had some sort of real feelings for him but everything like that was buried so deeply that he wasn't sure it was possible to reach anymore. He disliked such defeatist thinking, which was why he tried to give Gaara so many opportunities to falter in his assurance that those feelings didn't exist. However, the sand ninja did not falter and he felt he was left with no other choice.

He could tell that Gaara wanted a willing playmate but without any real emotional backing, that wasn't something Lee could bring himself to do. Even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to fake it and the deception would most likely only anger the volatile ninja. On the other hand, he couldn't go back to fighting him either. The cat and mouse game might be fun if he wasn't constantly fearing for his life. So, rather than risk another sexual assault, he simply acquiesced to the driving pleasure and walked away hoping that if he quelled the arousal that some of the aggression might to with it.

For the most part, he was right. It a way, it seemed as though he had sucked the life out of his partner and if he didn't know better, he might have worried for him. However, in this case he was thankful because it allowed him a clean get away back to the village.

Lee thought he was in the clear when suddenly a familiar voice intruded on his thoughts.

"Hey, where's the picnic?" Naruto greeted with a giddy grin.

"Oh this?" Lee blushed a little. "It's over," he grumbled.

"What's the matter? Didn't go so well?" the blonde presumed.

"You could say that," the taller teen muttered.

"You wanna talk about it?" he offered.

"N-Not really…" Lee dodged.

Naruto shrugged. "Okay, well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me." He gave his friend a hearty pat on the shoulder and went on his way.

Later that evening, after Naruto had finished his dinner, he happened upon Gaara. He had noticed the sand ninja had a habit of wandering around at night, which wasn't much of a surprise but tonight he appeared especially agitated so he decided to approach him.

"'Ey, Gaara!"

The shorter teen redoubled his pace but to no avail. "What?"

"What's up?"

"Nothing that concerns you," he snapped.

Naruto figured as much and knew better than to press the issue. "Hey, I wanted to ask you about something," he began carefully.

"What?" he repeated.

"I know you and Lee are spending a lot of time together and are kinda friends now," he began.

Gaara's eyes grew wide with horror, "What did he tell you?"

"Well, nothing really," the blonde replied, completely oblivious to the other's panic.

"Then what about him?"

"I think he likes somebody but they don't like him back. I think it's really getting him down," Naruto empathetically explained. "I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

Gaara regained his composer a long minute later. "Of course not," he curtly replied.

"Oh, that's too bad," Naruto shrugged and was about to leave.

"Why's that?" Gaara suddenly questioned before the other could exit.

"'Cause I was hoping to figure a way to help him out," he reasoned.

"As far as I can tell, that kid's a lost cause," Gaara haughtily replied.

Naruto frowned. "Well, thanks anyway."

The blonde got about three steps away before Gaara blurted out, "You like helping people, right?"

He gave a silly little smile as he turned around, "You know I do."

"Then, I have a little problem of my own," he carefully began, counting on the other's density to work to his advantage.

"What's that?" the bright-eyed ninja asked hopefully.

"There is someone here that I have grown rather fond of," he trailed off to gauge his reaction.

Naruto's grin grew. "Who?" he immediately asked.

Gaara gave an exasperated sigh and leveled his gaze on the one who had intruded on his thoughts.

"Uh, oh, sorry, yeah…here," he led the fairer teen to a bench on an out of the way path. "Do they know how you feel?" he tried again.

"Yes," Gaara assuredly replied.

"And?" he prompted curiously.

"And what?" the sand ninja snapped.

"And how do they feel? Did she tell you?" he pressed.

"I-I'm not sure. It's hard to tell." He was glad for the other's misguided assumption and let it slide.

"What's the problem?" he finally asked.

Gaara sighed and looked off into the distance as though he was looking and listening for someone to intrude on them. "It's driving me crazy. Everything they do makes me want to-" he stopped as soon as he realized what he was saying.

Naruto was about to ask him to finish but thought better of it, hoping to figure it out on his own.

"We have before," he suddenly amended, "and I think we both liked it…but…" he trailed off.

"Oh…I-I dunno what to say. Sorry, I don't know much about that kind of stuff," the blonde stammered.

Gaara laughed a little. "I didn't think so," he grumbled and walked away.

Naruto decided it was better not to follow. However, it did get him thinking. Suddenly, the odd friendship that had developed between the two training partners. Misery loves company and he knew that fighting was sometimes a very therapeutic for that kind of thing. But that didn't mean he didn't want to help them.

So, later that evening, when he ran into his drunken sensei, he decided to take advantage of the boisterous man's knowledge of relationships.

"Oi, Naruto-kun, what are you doing out so late?" Master Jiraiya chided when he saw the young man approaching him.

"Oh, nuthin'," he diverted. He'd learned not to broach an important subject immediately because it revealed how important it was. So, after another few drinks, he directed his conversation to girls, which was rather easy to say the least.

"You got anybody you fancy?" the older man suddenly asked.

The teen blushed. "Uh, well," he had admitted his crush on Sakura on several occasions so it wasn't difficult to bring it up now.

"Aw, how's she doin'?" he pressed.

"She still likes Sasuke," he grumbled.

"That's too bad but remember, she's not the only girl out there," he assured.

"What do you do when you like someone and they don't like you the same way?" he asked since he was given the opening.

"Uh, well…that's a tough one," he grumbled. "Sometimes there's nothin' for it," he took another swallow of alcohol before continuing. "Since she already knows how you feel, the ball's really in her court at this point," he admitted but when he saw how disappointed the blonde looked he tried to turn it around. "That's not to say there's nothing you can do. Have you tried doing things for her? Giving her compliments?"

"Yeah, I think I've done all those things," Naruto reasoned, figuring that if Lee had taken his love interest out on a picnic, things were pretty clear and the excitable young man wasn't likely to hold back on the compliments. Gaara, on the other hand, would have been more questionable except he knew that he had sex with his crush which meant that he had to have been at least a little charming.

"Then I'm not sure what to tell you," the white-haired man shrugged.

"W-What if we've already done some stuff together…but she's not as into it?" he barely managed, hardly believing his own words. He figured that if he couldn't help his friends with the information, it might do him some good.

"Oh? Really now?" Jiraiya chuckled heartily. He was more than a little surprised by that but didn't press it too hard for fear of scaring him off. "If she's into you enough to do stuff like that, then you're over halfway there," he assured. "The trick is if you're ready to go and she's not, then you take the time to get her ready. It doesn't work every time but it certainly doesn't hurt."

"Get her ready?" Naruto blinked with incomprehension.

"You know…uh," he trailed off with a vague hand motion. "Do stuff she likes. Make her feel good. Don't do anything too physical until she makes a move. I think that's best. Egg her on until she makes a move," he assured.

The blonde ninja sat in contemplative silence for a long time after that considering the older man's words. He might have had a revelation if the drunken man next to him didn't derail his thoughts.

"'Ey, do that sexy-no-jutsu," Jiraiya lecherously suggested.

After that, Naruto knew that any sort of helpfulness in the older man had been drowned and carefully slipped away. Fortunately, the old master was too drunk to follow him so it was fairly easy.

He hadn't intended to run into Gaara again that evening. He wanted some time to think over what he'd been told but he was not allowed that time.

"What did you tell him?" the smaller teen growled dangerously as he cornered the blonde in a dingy little storage alley.

"Huh? What?"

"I heard you talking to that perverted old man. What did you tell him?" he hissed, eyes narrowing and shifting from side to side.

"N-Nothing…well, nothing really," he stammered.

"What?" he growled.

"He thought I was talking about me," he finally managed.

Gaara gave his captive a suspicious stare. "Are you sure?" he pressed.

"Absolutely. He was totally drunk. I think he was just happy to hear I was having girl problems like that," he laughed bashfully.

The sand ninja rolled his eyes and stepped away. "So what did he say?" he asked impatiently.

"Oh, uh, well…" the blonde scratched the back of his head, adjusting his bandana. "He said that if you're ready when she's not then you just have to get her ready by doing stuff she likes," he managed.

Gaara frowned, "What if I don't want to do that stuff?"

Then it was Naruto's frown, which appeared twice as disappointed as his comrade's. "Then why are you together? It's supposed to be like a team effort, the way I understand it. If she's not playing then it's not much of a game," he reasoned.

"But that stuff doesn't have anything to do with sex. What's the point?" he impatiently pressed.

"Gaara, I don't know who you're with but I do know that most people want more than just sex. From what I've heard, stuff like that can be fun for a while but it's not as much fun as if you've got something real behind it," he tried to explain.

"Don't tell me it wasn't real!" Gaara nearly shouted as he slammed the blonde against the side of the building with a loud thud.

"I-That's not what I meant. I just mean that some people need love…or at least something close, to want to be with another person like that. If you don't want to do that, then you should find someone else to screw around with," Naruto quickly continued. "That's just the way it is."

"I should have known better than to talk to you. This has just been a waste of time," Gaara grumbled and walked away.

"Oh, he also said that a little extra lube never hurt anybody," he called after the other teen. Naruto disliked Gaara's habit of suddenly walking away from just about anything, but realized there was nothing for it so he just let him go and finally managed to get to bed. On the one hand, he felt bad about intruding. On the other, he irked that the moody redhead had told him those things and then freaked out like that and just wanted to sleep.

After a good night's rest, Naruto felt a lot better and reasoned that his interference, regardless of whose fault it was, made little to no difference. That didn't mean that the next day when Lee started to talk to him, he didn't continue to try to be helpful.

"Ya know, I heard that Gaara's having some relationship problems of his own. Maybe you guys can figure something out together," Naruto suggested hopefully.

Lee blushed and stammered for a second before regaining his composure. "I know about Gaara's problems," he grumbled.

"Oh yeah? What do you think?" he pressed.

"I think he needs to find a better way to deal with his frustrations," the dark-haired teen replied.

Naruto wasn't exactly sure they were talking about the same thing anymore but he didn't get the chance to question it.

"And even if I could help him, he wouldn't want to do the same for me," Lee added knowingly.

Naruto had never known Lee to be that pragmatic. Ever since they met, he knew that they were in many ways kindred souls, willing to help others to a fault. "Oh…"

"It's not like I haven't tried. I know he's upset about being here…but you don't go and act like-" he cut himself off before incriminating himself further.

"Act like what?" Naruto had to ask.

"Like…like…" he trailed off a couple times before finding sufficient words, "Like a selfish jerk," he finally spat, feeling more than a little better at having actually said the words.

"Oh, yeah, I kinda got that impression when I talked to him," the blonde muttered. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Lee repeated defensively.

"It didn't sound like your picnic went so well. Are you going to keep trying?" he pressed.

Lee almost laughed. "I don't know what I'm going to do…or if I'm going to get much choice in the matter," he reluctantly informed.

"Why's that?"

"It's just that…" he sighed, "I don't know if its one of those things that can work. I had that picnic yesterday so that we could figure things out but he just wants sex and he expects me to want it too just because we-" once again he stopped himself midsentence but he had already said too much.

Naruto furrowed his blonde eyebrows. "He?" he repeated. Even though he was dense, he noticed that it was said more than once so it probably wasn't a mistake.

Lee blushed furiously and looked down at his lap where he was wringing his hands. "I-I didn't want it to be this way but I don't think he can be anything else," he grimly added.

That was all the verification that Naruto needed, not that a person's sexual orientation made much difference to him until they started to show an interest. "Lee, calm down," he tried to ease with a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You wanna go someplace else?"

With a defeated nod, the taller teen stood and they went back to Lee's room to talk. He was surprised by how easy it was for him to stand, as though just letting that little bit out lifted a tremendous weight from his shoulders.


	5. Another Day

When Gaara arrived at their usual training ground the next day he was supposed to train with Lee, he found someone else waiting for him. It was Naruto and he appeared rather impatient.

"Where's Lee?" Gaara asked as he approached with measured steps.

"I'm going to be working with you now," the blonde replied.

"That's not what I asked you," the shorter teen growled.

"Whatever," Naruto dismissed and then started preparing his first attack. He was willing to forego the inevitably hostile and awkward conversation if Gaara was willing to let it go.

"This is unacceptable," Gaara hissed, which left him vulnerable to the initial assault.

"Really, I'm the only one who makes sense. The best way to get stronger is by fighting someone with equal…or greater power," he haughtily replied because as much as he dreaded it, he was somewhat prepared for this conversation. "I was just too busy to do it before."

Gaara gave a defensive growl.

"What's the matter? I thought you were tired of fighting somebody you always beat. I think you got too comfortable," he accused.

The sand ninja had not been comfortable for an instant with Lee and the accusation made him very angry. "Intrusive brat! What did he tell you?" he finally asked.

"That doesn't matter. I'm your training partner now," he dismissed with another series of rather successful attacks. "Come on, you're not even trying."

"I'm not going to do this," Gaara snapped and tried to leave but Naruto blocked his path. "Get out of my way!"

"Fight me," the blonde ordered.

"No. Get out of my way," the shorter teen countered.

"Fight me," he repeated.

"No!" Gaara finally yelled and tried once again to get around his opponent.

"Fight me!" the leaf ninja screamed and attacked the other again.

The shorter teen gave a scream of frustration, and gave into the taunts.

Naruto's disapproving frown turned into a victorious grin. "You really are frustrated," he marveled a little after a few minutes of exchanging blows.

"You don't know anything!" Gaara seethed.

"I know more than you think I do," the blonde scoffed in return. Their fight continued for another hour before Naruto spoke again. "So, I was always really nice to you, why not make a move on me?"

The sand ninja's features twisted with shame and disgust.

"Is it 'cause you know I could fight you off?" he continued to accuse.

As much as what Naruto was saying really bothered Gaara, it also made him curious. It made him wonder if that wasn't part of Lee's appeal, mainly his sex appeal. So, with an eerily inquisitive look, he summoned his sand and bound Naruto's feet to the ground.

With a disgusted grumble, and significant effort, he broke free. Gaara found the resistance more annoying than amusing so once he thought he had a good shot at stopping the blond in his tracks, he took it with marked zeal, even going as far as to knock the wind out of him, providing extra time to move up and stand over him.

"You do put up more of a fight then he did," Gaara mused.

"I doubt that," Naruto dismissed because he knew of Lee's persistence at least as well as Gaara did.

"I guess we'll see…" he eyed his captive quickly because he wasn't sure how long it would last. With that restriction in mind, he forced the other up onto his knees. With only a moment's hesitation, he leaned down and kissed the blonde. To his surprise, he wasn't pushed away.

Naruto simply stared upward stupidly until the contact ended, which earned him a very disgusted and very disappointed sneer. "What's the matter?"

"Tch, if you're gunna be like that, then I guess you don't fight as much as Lee does," he grumbled.

"So you did rape him," Naurto accused darkly.

"What did you say?" Gaara demanded, almost slapping his opponent.

"You heard me!" the blonde snapped. He was too busy making his verbal attacks to fight his physical restraints at the moment but that didn't seem to matter.

"I did not!" he contested angrily.

"Liar! He told me what happened, what you did to him!" Naruto argued.

"He told you?" Gaara scoffed incredulously. "If that's what he told you then he's the liar!" He knew he had forced himself on the other, but at the same time thought that he had been very mindful of his partner's comfort and pleasure. So, in his mind, he had rationalized that accusation away until it was spoken so forcefully by another.

"Lee doesn't lie and even if he did, he wouldn't lie about something like that," Naruto defended willfully.

"Then he didn't tell you the whole truth," Gaara attempted to defend again.

"And what's that?" the blonde scoffed.

"He enjoyed himself. In spite of all his kicking and screaming, he liked it. I made sure of that," he vowed seriously.

It was obvious that Naruto didn't believe that either. At least, not at first. Then, it started to make a little bit of sense. Since Gaara's attention was so intense and if Lee had actually gotten some pleasure out of their time together, then that would explain why Lee had made such an effort to form a deeper emotional bond to back up all those other feelings, to justify them.

"And he's too scared to admit that even to himself so I'm not surprised if he failed to mention it to you," Gaara spat.

"Why can't you understand that even if the sex was good, it doesn't mean anything unless you really care about each other?" the blonde shot back.

"Stop telling me that what I feel doesn't mean anything!" Gaara ordered harshly, this time actually slapping the young man on his knees.

"So, you do feel something?" Naruto asked hopefully, with only a slight wince from the slap.

The sand ninja frowned intensely. "I'm not talking to you about this," he informed and started to walk away. Unfortunately, the question had damaged his concentration and Naruto broke free a second later.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" the blonde rushed after the redhead.

"None of your business," he hissed.

"Then you won't mind if I follow you," the leaf ninja replied.

"Leave me the hell alone!" Gaara snapped viciously.

"I bet Lee said that," Naruto retorted quickly.

"Stop saying stuff like that!"

"Then let me say this," he grabbed Gaara's shoulder and forced him to turn around. "I won't let you hurt Lee anymore. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure of that. But, if you really care about him and if you're willing to try to show it, at least to him, I'll try to stay out of your way," he tried.

"But he's willing to give me sex without all that crap. He just won't let himself enjoy it," he scoffed.

"How can you use him like that?" Naruto protested. "He doesn't deserve to be treated like that!"

"If he were stronger, he could do something about it," he grumbled under his breath. "What he wants from me, I can't provide. He's made that perfectly clear."

"But you can't just do whatever you want with him!"

"If I did whatever I wanted with him he'd be dead by now," Gaara informed flatly.

That, of course, made Naruto's frown deepen. "If I see you anywhere near Lee, you'll be dead," he promised and then stormed off.

* * *

Naturally, that threat only made Gaara want his unwilling sweetheart all the more. The forbidden fruit was even more forbidden now, even explicitly so. So, for the next several days, he decided to fake out Naruto and in the process, freak out Lee even more.

He would approach Lee, getting only close enough to be acknowledged, and give him menacing stares and the like. Then, as soon as Naruto would come close, as his chakra was fairly easy to sense even when he wasn't doing anything, he would disappear, making a point of illustrating that he was going in the opposite direction as Lee. That seemed to please Naruto greatly, and make him feel as though he had successfully defended his friend.

Then, once he was sure he could successfully corner the tall, slender young man that haunted his daydreams, he went for it. Just when he was on his way home after a particularly long day, Lee was captured in sand and abducted without warning.

With a strong hand cupped over his mouth, Lee gave muffled protests as he tried to squirm away with little to no success. Once they were a significant distance into the forest, he was carefully set down and unbound.

"Ah, Gaara, what's the big idea?" Lee demanded indignantly.

The shorter teen pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest with equal indignity. "We need to talk," he informed.

"What about?" he brushed himself off as he stood.

"Call off your watch dog," he snapped.

"What?" the dark-haired teen questioned.

"Naruto's been breathin' down the back of my neck all week 'cause of what you told him!" he accused fitfully.

Lee gave a guilty look. "I needed somebody to talk to," he admitted. "I didn't expect him to do anything about it and he insisted that he take over training with you in exchange for not telling anybody else."

Gaara turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. After a long moment of thought, he turned back. "Okay, talk to me," he sighed as he sat down.

Lee took a cautious step backward. "Why?"

"Because I don't like the idea of you talking about us with other people so, if you _have_ to talk about it, then talk to me," he insisted.

The taller teen sill appeared suspicious, but sat down on the forest floor. "I already tried talking with you. You don't listen very well," he complained.

"I'm listening now," he impatiently prompted.

Lee fidgeted for a moment before trying to speak. "There's not much to say, really. You were there. You know what happened." When Gaara still appeared unsatisfied, he continued. "I know you would never want to show it in public, but it would be nice if you didn't act like you hated me."

"I already told you that I don't hate you," Gaara defended.

"I know…but saying something and doing something are different, you know that," he replied.

"What do you want from me?" he finally asked.

"I-I dunno. Something more than sex. I know you said that's all you're interested in but I can't do that. If that's what you need to get by while you're here, then I'll keep training with you," he offered. "But you can't expect me to get anything out of it."

"You'd keep training with me, keep letting me use you?" he asked with a dark hopefulness.

"I guess…" Lee shrugged. "But I can't pretend to enjoy it," he added with a bitter reluctance.

"You require emotional satisfaction," he replied suspiciously.

"I wish you didn't say that like it was a weakness," he muttered.

"What is the benefit of getting emotionally invested in someone?" Gaara looked away.

"I dunno. I can't explain it," he sighed listlessly. "I don't think anybody knows what the benefits are until they've already seen them." Then, he frowned a little when he realized that Gaara was afraid of getting hurt.

The sand ninja shifted uncomfortably.

"It's about liking me for who I am, not what I look like," he asserted, unable to believe he was actually having to say something like that.

Gaara's discomfort was lifted a bit when he thought of something. "Does that mean that you like me for who I am?" he asked curiously.

Lee blushed a little. "I think I could…if I got the chance. Even with as much time as we've spent together, I don't feel like I know you at all. I think that's a lot of why I was so freaked out," he reasoned.

The idea that someone would even try to accept him at face value made the fluttering in his stomach return. "Okay…" he began slowly. "What if I was willing to try things your way?" He spoke the question with marked reluctance.

"I don't want you to do something that you don't want to do. I don't expect you to pretend. That's why I'm not willing to do it either," Lee replied.

Gaara found that he actually respected that. He was pleased that Lee wouldn't try to fake enthusiasm because that would be even more disappointing than being turned down. "I'll try it," he informed surely but only after a long, thoughtful pause.

"R-Really?" Lee stammered with surprise.

"Yeah, what the hell," he shrugged.

"What changed your mind?" he had to ask.

"I figure that if you're still willing to try after all that, you might actually be worth it," he managed.

Lee smiled widely.

"Under one condition," he quickly amended.

"What's that?" Lee's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"I don't want to hide it. If we're not going to pretend for each other then I don't want to do it for anybody else," he contested.

"Really?" the dark-haired teen gasped and his eyes grew wide.

"If you're not willing to acknowledge me in front of other people then I don't want to do it for you either," he defended. He didn't want to be anybody's dirty little secret.

Lee's mind raced. He had never dreamed of having that kind of relationship with Gaara, even when he hoped for that sort of turn, it was too vague to seem plausible, and to think that he wouldn't want to hide it, stole his words.

"Unless that embarrasses you too much," he retracted with a sneer.

"I can try," Lee finally replied with as much resolve as he could muster.

That made Gaara's heart race. He wanted to embrace the young man sitting a short distance from him but was afraid of being seen as taking advantage of the impact of their decision. However, when Lee saw his restless fidgeting, he took pity on him and closed the distance, wrapping his arms around the shorter teen.

Gaara gasped and immediately reciprocated, holding onto the slender body and pressing it against his own as tightly as he could, as though he was afraid he might wake up from a dream. When Lee realized that, he almost felt guilty because, again, he knew the other wasn't privileged with the activity that is so vital to human existence, one that helped most people sort out their feelings and experiences without even trying.

Lee was surprised that Gaara was the first to pull back from the embrace but not when he realized that the sudden contact after such an emotional breakthrough had aroused the shorter teen. He felt bad when the redhead looked away with shame in his eyes. So, with a sigh, he lifted Gaara's chin and pressed their lips together as well as their bodies.

Gaara gave a little whimper that sounded more pathetic than he was comfortable with but the passion behind Lee's kiss was something he couldn't deny. He didn't want to. It felt too good. He felt so warm and inviting. For the first time, he felt like someone accepted him, at least a little.

The moment, however, wasn't allowed to last because Lee's stomach started to growl. Gaara was disappointed but still laughed a little.

"Uh, I sorta skipped dinner," he admitted bashfully.

"Let's go eat then," the shorter teen urged hopefully. As much as he wanted to keep kissing and hugging in the privacy of the forest, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep his hormones in check for very much longer if they were left to their own devices and he didn't want Lee to think he had only said those things to get with him one more time.

"Uh, okay," Lee managed to reply. He was only just coming to terms with not hiding their relationship and now Gaara wanted to go out in public together but he didn't want Gaara to think he wasn't trying, that he was embarrassed, so he gave a confident nod and stood.

* * *

No one paid them any mind until after they sat down at one of the few noodle carts open all night. Naruto had noticed that Lee didn't return to the dorms that evening and after much searching, found him with Gaara at the noodle cart.

"Ah-ha!" the blonde exclaimed victoriously. "What did I tell you?" he demanded with an angry, pointing finger.

Gaara groaned and hung his head. He had almost forgotten about the threat.

Lee shifted uncomfortably and stood. "It's okay," he tried to ease.

Naruto's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Did he threaten you?" he asked quietly.

The taller young man blushed deeply. "No, please," he led him away from any prying ears. "We talked things out. It's okay now," he tried to assure.

The blonde didn't appear convinced. "If you're really okay, then can I sit with you?"

Lee frowned. "No," he firmly replied, surprised by his own firmness.

"Why not?" he pressed.

"Because we were just starting to get comfortable," he reasoned anxiously.

The earnest pleading in his friend's eyes made him acquiesce. "Yeah, okay. See ya tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, okay," Lee agreed and saw his friend off before returning. Gaara gave him an expecting look when he did. "He probably won't bother you anymore," he tried to promise.

The shorter teen gave a nod of approval.

After they finished eating, Lee felt much better and they both felt much more comfortable than they expected.

"I'll walk you back," Gaara offered casually.

When they arrived at the front door, they turned awkwardly to one another. Lee almost looked around but thought better of it before bending down to kiss Gaara gently on the lips. The shorter teen gasped with surprise as he pressed back. That reaction made Lee wonder if maybe Gaara would ask to come inside with him.

They parted a moment later and both gave into the urge to search for prying eyes and felt very silly when they found none. Gaara swallowed hard and took a step back. "Good night, Lee," he nodded and waited for the other to go inside.

Lee was pleasantly surprised that Gaara was willing to let him go like that. It made a large part of him want to pick up where they had left off during their picnic but he was afraid of damaging the report growing between them. He wasn't permitted to decide before the other noticed the hesitation.

"What's the matter?" Gaara asked quietly.

"I-I'm not very tired," Lee admitted , scratching the back of his head nervously. After everything that happened, he knew it would take him a while to get to sleep.

Gaara tried not to smile. "Well, I've got nothin' but time," he shrugged.

"Go for a walk?" the taller teen proposed hopefully.

A quick nod later, they were wandering the streets of the leaf village. Since they were still very self-conscious about drawing any undue attention to themselves, they kept their voices down but the one following them couldn't help noticing that the space between them as they walked continued to grow smaller.

For a long time, they just joked around and told amusing stories, trying to get comfortable with their new situation. Walking around at night seemed almost like a dress rehearsal for their eventual next public appearance together. Regardless of how casual they were, it would still take some getting used to.

Lee gasped when Gaara finally took his hand but didn't try to let go because it was a much more sentimental gesture than he ever expected from his training partner.

"Your hands are so warm," Gaara noted just above a whisper. He hadn't intended to say it aloud but something about being with Lee like that made it hard to keep his thoughts to himself.

Lee blushed a little and then gave Gaara a quick kiss on the forehead, making Gaara's skin light up as well. They giggled foolishly and continued on their way.

What also surprised Lee was that was as far as Gaara seemed intent to go. He wasn't sure if it was because these were their first public affections but with as aggressive as the sand ninja has been, he expected more advances. In fact, he found himself making most of the advances, which made him feel strangely in control for once in their relationship.

However, that didn't mean that every few seconds, Gaara's brain wouldn't switch from thinking about whatever they were talking about to trying to figure out the fastest way to get his new boyfriend naked. It was very distracting but it was what had gotten him into trouble in the first place, so he tried to reign himself in, doing so with considerable success.

That self-control was rewarded much sooner than he expected when Lee casually, well as casually as he could, wrapped his arm around Gaara's shoulders. It was the first time that he had ever been able to appreciate his height advantage and he grinned downward.

Gaara felt that infectious warmth spread and the butterflies in his stomach seemed to be having seizures. "What's that look for?" he tried not to snap because he knew it wasn't meant as a mocking grin.

"This is fun," Lee laughed and shook his comrade a little. "Thank you," he said honestly. He was only just starting to realize how much Gaara had opened up in those few short hours and he wanted to give something back because he knew it took an enormous effort.

"Don't thank me. It's weird if you thank me," he shifted, a little uncomfortable with the idea of explicit gratitude at this point.

"Oh, okay then," he suddenly turned, grabbed Gaara by the shirt, and backed up against the side of one of the closed shops on the street then had just turned onto.

Only then did Gaara realize that he had been lead into a quite neat but still rather dark alleyway. "Wh-What-?" he barely asked the question before they were kissing again and once they were kissing he couldn't hold back any longer, pressing his body against the taller one before him and squishing him against the brick wall.

Lee made a soft thud sound that faded into a little laugh as he tried to keep his lips on those of the now very excited young man before him. The sudden aggressiveness made him falter slightly but it was that skip of a heartbeat that had caused his arousal the first them they were together.

"What do you want to do?" Lee asked in a quiet, husky voice.

Those words spoken in that voice from that mouth almost made Gaara cum in his pants. His vision even blurred a little as his cock pulsed in his pants and he had to grit his teeth to keep it from happening.

This little display did not go unnoticed and Lee couldn't help staring down in a stunned awe at the young man in his arms. To help keep from embarrassing himself further, Gaara started to unzip Lee's uniform.

The dark-haired teen trembled a little as his zipper descended, something he could feel much more readily than he could see. On top of that, the idea of being naked in a public place excited him more than he expected. So, by the time Gaara had pulled out his cock, it was already partially erect, a fact that obviously pleased the sand ninja who quickly fell to his knees and started to taste him.

Lee gasped loudly and had to cover his mouth with his hands to keep from making any more noise. Now that he wasn't resisting Gaara, he very quickly found himself in a sea of pleasure, even rocking his hips off the wall behind him when his partner did something particularly enjoyable.

Listening to Lee's muffled cries of pleasure and feeling the way his body reacted to him was making Gaara so hot that he thought he would lose his mind. When he started to feel the pain of denial in his crotch, he reached down unzipped his fly without stopping his oral administrations. Once his cock was out of his pants, he reached back up with his off hand and grabbed Lee's ass.

Only when Gaara's small hand tightly grabbed his backside did Lee realize that he had closed his eyes. It was an involuntary reflex that helped him shut out the outside world. What he saw when he did open his eyes, made his knees shake. He had been so caught up in his own pleasure that the hadn't thought about Gaara's for a while. It made him feel guilty but when he tried to use his grip in the sand ninja's wiry hair to pull him away for a moment, his effort was met with a rather dangerous growl.

The growl made Lee lose control of his legs and he was suddenly grateful for Gaara's crude grip because it kept him from hitting the ground too hard a moment later. The shorter teen backed up a bit with his knees to give him a little more room to work, most only on himself.

"Ah, Gaara," Lee gasped quietly.

Another growl, this one more protective than dangerous, was Gaara's response.

"Please, let me help you too…let me touch you," the taller teen pleaded.

Gaara pulled away, panting lightly, a silly little grin dancing on the corners of his swollen lips. The plea to help didn't phase him but the desire for more touching almost made his heart stop.

Seeing that his partner was stunned, Lee grabbed Gaara's shirt and pulled him close again so they could kiss. Without thinking they reached for one another and started stroking each other. Before Gaara realized what he was doing, he was in Lee's lap and they were pushing each other to the edge.

Lee didn't realize when they came that he answered one of the questions that Gaara had asked the first time they were together, one that he had refused to answer. What Lee was doing to him felt incredibly good and he knew that it wasn't because he was particularly skilled because he was so hot at that point to find anything but pleasure in Lee's touches. However, the way that Lee caught his cum in the palm of his hand, rather than letting it shoot out onto their clothes. With that, he knew that Lee had, in fact, touched himself before.

That notion, however, came more as a giggling afterthought that tickled the back of is mind as his head rested on Lee's shoulder, allowing them both to catch their breath. When he felt the other young man's seed start to cool in his own hand, he lifted his head and with a challengingly mischievous glint in his eyes as he licked the thick, white substance from his hand.

Lee's eyes widened a bit at the display but accepted the challenge and followed suit, especially since he didn't have a better way of disposing of it anyway. This pleased Gaara greatly and earned him another passionate kiss before they redressed.

"Tired yet?" Gaara teased as they stood and brushed themselves off.

Lee laughed a little. "Yeah, I think so."

"I'll walk you back," he offered once again and this time succeeded in getting his new boyfriend home safely.

Gaara had intended to simply find a quiet place to sit until he could watch the village start to rouse for morning because that was often his favorite time of day. After a night of sleepless loneliness, very few things felt better than the feeling of being reunited with the rest of the waking world. Even if he didn't feel like he belonged in that world, it was often better, or at least more distracting, than the quiet solitude of night.

This morning was different. He did enjoy it more than the waiting for the sunrise but after the night he just had, even that seemed a bit pale and weak. It made him want to rush to the building where Lee lived and pace around outside until the tall, dark-haired young ninja emerged. However, he knew that probably wasn't the best idea, even if they had decided not to hide their feelings in front of others. So, he tried to wait as long as he could in one place before giving in to the urge to wander around aimlessly.

Seeing Naruto a few minutes later made Gaara wish he had stayed perched in his tree because he didn't hesitate to approach.

"What do you want this time?" he snapped.

"I wanted to say thank you, actually, and good luck," Naurto managed but it only earned him a more intense sneer.

"What do you have to thank me for?" the sand ninja hissed.

"For at least trying not to just use Lee. I can tell you're really trying," he tried.

"You can't tell anything from what you saw last night," Gaara snapped but that only made the blonde snicker. "What?"

"Huh? Nothin," he tried to cover because as much as he trusted Lee, he still didn't trust Gaara and he had tried to follow the pair after leaving them be the night before. Unfortunately, he had tipped his hand, that and Gaara was already ultra-suspicious.

The sand ninja's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I knew it! You followed us!" he accused.

The blonde blushed and stammered a bit. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't like see anything. I just wanted to make sure."

"Make sure of what? That you really are an intrusive perverted brat?" Gaara growled, annoyed that they were on a rather crowded street.

"I'm sorry!" he insisted seriously. "Come on, after all that, you couldn't have expected me to trust you like that."

"Okay," the shorter teen growled, "but I thought you trusted Lee," he accused.

That made the rambunctious blonde falter. "I-I do. Wait, if you knew, why didn't you say anything?" he suddenly asked.

It was Gaara's turn to falter. He hadn't said anything for a lot of reasons. Part of him wanted to prove that he could be nice enough to Lee but mostly he just wanted to ignore everyone else and focus on the situation at hand. Really, he hoped that Naruto would get bored and go to bed on his own. "Because it would have made everything even weirder than it already was," he finally replied.

"Oh…I really am sorry," he repeated. "I'll try not to bug you anymore."

The sand ninja rolled his eyes in disgust. "What did you see?" he pressed, his voice quiet but dripping with a dangerous curiosity.

The blonde blushed and looked at his feet.

"Well?" he prompted impatiently.

"C-Can we talk about this someplace else?" Naruto finally asked.

The shorter teen pursed his lips in a decidedly displeased frown. "If you didn't see much, then you should be able to tell me everything right here," he insisted accusingly, for once glad that he was in a crowd of people.

The blonde blushed even more deeply and fidgeted with a slightly embarrassed panic.

Obviously disgusted, Gaara turned and walked away. He was satisfied in knowing that Naruto had no further intention to interfere in his more intimate affairs. Besides, he didn't really want to listen to the awkward blonde try to recount his voyeurism as politely as possible. Just knowing that he'd witness enough to embarrass them both was just the right amount of information as far as he was concerned.

However, Naruto was less satisfied by his response and followed without considering that Gaara just might want to leave it at that. "Look," he began again quietly as he walked, "I know you feel like I was intruding and you're probably right but-" he tried but was cut off.

"But you did it for Lee's sake," Gaara grumbled.

"Yeah, but when I saw him kiss you like that, I felt so bad that I just ran away," he admitted bashfully. Part of him hoped that if he embarrassed himself enough it might make up for what he'd done.

The idea that Naruto finally recognized that there might be some sort of spark between his rival and his comrade made Gaara's heart flutter again. He found he liked the idea that their affection was that apparent. "Like what?" he finally pressed.

"Huh?" the blonde blinked stupidly. It had taken Gaara so long to answer that he almost forgot what they were talking about.

Gaara looked around to find that they were far enough from most of the crowded streets that he felt comfortable asking in a quiet voice, "Kiss me like what?", even surprising himself with the slightly greedy undercurrent in his tone.

Naruto stammered a little, unsure exactly how to put it, which was why he had said it like that in the first place. "Uh, well, I dunno," he shrugged. "All sweet and stuff, I guess," he finally managed though he wasn't sure how the descriptor would be taken.

"Sweet? You thought that was sweet?" Gaara scoffed.

"Well, yeah. What would you call a kiss on the forehead while you're holding hands?" Naruto questioned defensively.

That's when it dawned on Gaara that they might not be talking about the same thing. "Oh, that kiss," he listlessly replied. "I suppose," he agreed.

"What did you think I was talking about? Wait, never mind," Naruto quickly corrected before taking his leave of the young sand ninja.

For this, Gaara was silently grateful and continued his wandering until it finally led him to the one he wanted to see in the first place.

"Good morning!" Lee greeted with a friendly smile.

The shorter teen gave a curt nod, which was more than he usually gave for such pleasantries. "Did you sleep well?" he asked knowingly.

Lee blushed a little but it was hardly noticeable. "Yeah, I guess I did," he laughed bashfully.

Others around the new couple noticed some changes in their behavior toward one another but didn't think anything of it because the sand ninja that they all feared seemed to actually be getting along with someone, which was a welcome change of pace. Gaara also found this to be rather pleasant, his interactions with Lee seemed to put others at ease. He didn't generally put too much stock in the reactions of others but the constant wariness that others exhibited around him did become wearying at times.

He had been concerned that after his stipulation that they not hide their feelings for one another in public if they weren't going to do it in private would cause Lee to run off at the mouth about it to every person he met. Lee was just friendly enough and just loud enough to do something like that but since it was his village, Gaara felt the taller teen had a right to do things like that. This was primarily because Lee would most likely receive the brunt of the embarrassment elicited from such behavior. Too many people were too scared of Gaara to mock him for it. Naturally, he expected that Lee would accept that stance if the tables were turned.

Fortunately, Lee seemed more than content to simply accept the overall better treatment without verbally acknowledging the fact that they were, in a sense, now dating. If someone asked, he would undoubtedly tell the truth but they hadn't given others a real reason to pry just yet.

However, Gaara and some of the more observant individuals around them noticed through Lee's posture that he was significantly more comfortable around Gaara now than he had been in the past. Initially, this was easy to dismiss as them finally finding some kind of common ground. Though as time passed, that would most likely change but that was a matter for another day.


End file.
